Goodyear Cuts Back on Mobile Obligation

Reading the Southwest Valley section of the Republic today, I noticed quite a bit about Goodyear's financial woes. Goodyear's current budget shortfall stands at $13.9 million. One interesting line from the print article says, "Goodyear depends heavily on growth and construction."

One area where you can see the pitfalls of this strategy is the failed venture in Mobile. Also featured today is an article regarding the cut backs to police and fire in Mobile, AZ. A drop from $2.1 million to $250,000, no doubt saving the city of Goodyear quite a lot of money, but what is going on with Mobile?

So the story goes, a couple of years ago, a large development was in the works to be built south of the Estrella Mountain community in Mobile, AZ. Large to the scale of like Verrado in Buckeye or Goodyear's existing Estrella Mountain. The developer, Scottsdale-based Montage Holdings promised this large 10,000+ acre project in exchange for Goodyear's agreement to annex a large portion of the Sonoran Valley. As part of the agreement, Montage agreed to reimburse Goodyear for the added police and fire services in Mobile. When the developer had financial troubles, Goodyear picked up the costs. Then, the project was foreclosed upon. Now, Goodyear has been paying this huge amount of money and hasn't had much to show for it. This is the danger of a budget strategy that demands high rate of growth.

What were they to do? The answer has been to cut back on the commitment for these services by about 88%. While I feel for the town of Mobile and I'm sure some of it's inhabitants are disappointed with the staff of now only one deputy working only 40 hours a week and fire shifts down to only 2 people per shift, I feel that Goodyear is only partially to blame for letting this town down.

Developers should be wary in the future to make sure that if they are willing to commit one city to deliver to another, they need to be able to keep up their end of the bargain. As the economy recovers, cities like Goodyear would be smart to rethink the long-term effects of any of the deals that they cut.