Mesa (Az.) voters will go to the polls today to decide on the fate of a new Chicago Cubs spring-training complex, as two questions on the ballot will authorize the city to go ahead with the plan and its funding.
Voters must approve a referendum question to raise the city hotel tax by two percentage points, as well as the actual Proposition 420 (thus becoming 420-friendly; insert your own joke here), which would direct the city to actually build a $84-million spring-training complex and up to $15 million in infrastructure costs. It would also allow the city to sell land in a remote Arizona county to also help pay for the complex.
The Cubs have been hitting local residents pretty hard for their support, sending out multiple mailings, airing commercials on local TV and bringing out Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, to public events. At a time when the mood in Arizona is conservative and antigovernment even by Arizona standards, passage of these measures — for something as popular as the Cubs — isn’t assured. indeed, the rumblings from Clark and Addison is that the question has been polling poorly among random voters; hence the need to bring out Banks and a barrage of pro-Cubs TV ads.
Rendering courtesy of Keep the Cubs.
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