Anthony Kern

AZ I See It

Dear Coyotes, if you can't make it in Glendale, you can't make it anywhere.

Taxpayers handed the Coyotes one of the best deals in the NHL; now they are abandoning Gila River Arena to fight for a brand new, publicly funded east Valley arena.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman sent a letter last month to all members of the Arizona Legislature, staunchly reaffirming the NHL's firm agenda to remove the Arizona Coyotes from Glendale.

This is in direct response to the long battle I fought, along with my taxpayer-defending colleagues and west Valley community leaders, to prevent the Arizona Coyotes from abandoning the city of Glendale. An abandonment that will leave taxpayers on the hook to pay crippling debt on Gila River Arena for decades to come.

Big promises, even bigger debt

It feels like yesterday that Gila River Arena was being built in the West Valley to house the Coyotes, which ended up costing taxpayers in Glendale a whopping $180 million. With the promise of economic development, jobs and putting Glendale on the map, this deal appeared to be a long-term benefit for the west Valley.

Now, 13 years later, the Coyotes are threatening to abandon the city, leaving for taxpayers a debt to the tune of $145 million through 2033.

Senate Bill 1474, a bill sponsored by Sen. Bob Worsley, reignited this concern. The bill shows the Coyotes' intent to seek additional taxpayer funds from the state to help build a new sports arena. This legislation comes down to a simple public policy question: Should taxpayers be asked to pay for a new arena that will directly compete with already existing facilities that taxpayers are still paying off?

Don't saddle taxpayers with more debt

The bill couldn’t stand on its own merit, eventually taking on several different forms, including a strike-everything amendment (SB 1149), to attempt to advance it through the committee hearing process. Now it sits stalled in the Senate.

Lawmakers cutting deals to use your taxpayer dollars for stadium projects is nothing new; continuing to open the broader discussion of how public dollars should be spent. The residents of Glendale and the state of Arizona deserve better than to have their tax dollars used on new stadiums every 10 to 15 years.

ROBERTS: Coyotes deal is dead. Or is it?

The Coyotes are an important economic driver in the west Valley, but a new taxpayer-funded arena would compete directly for shows, concerts and events with several different publicly funded facilities in the state, further hurting taxpayers and making their investments unsustainable.

Glendale is a cautionary tale of how taxpayers are taken advantage of, leaving the city in stadium debt and taxpayers on the hook for a team abandoning the city.

Keep your eyes open. A professional sports team may be setting its sights on your city or town for the next taxpayer-funded arena directly siphoned from your city's or state's general fund.

Rep. Anthony Kern, a Republican, represents Legislative District 20 in the West Valley. Email him at akern@azleg.gov.