📚 The Great Library Heist: How SALC Helped Divert Book Money to Fund Preschools
Maxwell reveals "creative accounting" that channels library tax dollars to early education while libraries face closure threats
Based on the Buckmaster Show for 4/4/25, a daily radio show in Tucson, AZ, interviewing local newsmakers.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
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👮♂️🔊 General Ted Maxwell runs a business group in Tucson and was interviewed on a radio show. He talked about how new taxes on imports from Mexico 🇲🇽💰 will hurt small businesses that sell things like tortillas 🌮. He also warned that if the government cuts funding for healthcare 💊, hundreds of thousands of people in Arizona 🏜️ may not be able to see doctors 🩺 anymore.
When asked about education for young kids 👶📚, Maxwell revealed that money meant for libraries 📖 is being used to pay for preschool programs 👶🏫. Some people are worried this might lead to library closures 🚪❌ while others think both libraries and preschools should get their own funding 💵. Maxwell believes businesses should offer education as a job benefit 🎓💼 instead of relying on public funds, which means only some kids would get the chance to learn early. 📉👦👧
🗝️ Takeaways
🌮 Cross-Border Impact: Maxwell warned that 25% tariffs would devastate small businesses like a tortilla company that "can't take the $250 hit" on $1,000 daily sales to Nogales
📖 Library Tax Diversion: SALC helped engineer a legal interpretation that allows library district tax money to fund the PEEPS early childhood education program
🚗 Integration Reality: Cars often cross the US-Mexico border "three or four times until they're complete," highlighting the deeply integrated economies that tariffs would disrupt
🗳️ RTA Timeline: The next Regional Transportation Authority tax measure will likely target May 2026 rather than November 2025, partly due to leadership turnover
👩⚕️ Healthcare Crisis: Federal Medicaid cuts could cause between 400,000-750,000 Arizonans to lose health coverage due to Arizona's "trigger law"
🏫 Education Divide: SALC opposes city funding for early childhood education despite acknowledging it "will change our community for the better"
💼 Corporate Priorities: Maxwell suggests businesses should offer education as an employment perk rather than supporting universal public access
Buckmaster's Business Booster: General Maxwell Meanders Through Medicaid, Mobility, and Money Matters
In the latest installment of the Buckmaster Show's Friday Focus, the airwaves were commandeered by yet another military man marching into municipal matters. Major General Ted Maxwell, now leading the Southern Arizona Leadership Council (SALC), graced Bill Buckmaster's microphone on April 4th to pontificate on politics, profits, and public services—all while wearing his many hats as the business community's designated defender.
With co-host Jim Nintzel of TucsonSentinel.com providing the journalistic probing, the conversation wove through tariffs, transportation taxes, Medicaid machinations, and corporate claims about community priorities.
As usual, what wasn't said revealed as much as what was.
The General's Border Battle: Tariffs as Economic Torpedoes
When questioned about the recent tariffs imposed following "liberation day," Maxwell momentarily strayed from capitalist orthodoxy by acknowledging these trade penalties would hammer our border communities.
"Tariffs are historically not good for business," Maxwell admitted, perhaps the understatement of the century. "And there's going to be no difference here. The costs to consumers are going to increase the amount of trade that's going to be impacted down on the border."
Maxwell highlighted that Mexico is "our state's number one trading partner by a long range," pointing out that tariffs don't just impact large corporations but smaller businesses like the tortilla company that transports $1,000 worth of product daily into Nogales.
"A 25% tariff on a company in Mexico that daily transports $1,000 worth of tortillas into the Nogales area... it's going to go out of business," Maxwell explained. "Because 25%, you think about the profit margin on the $1,000 sales of tortillas, they can't take the $250 hit."
Fascinating how the business elite suddenly discovers compassion for cross-border commerce when profit margins are threatened, yet remains conspicuously silent when migrant workers face dehumanization and exclusion. The tortilla makers matter when their economic activity benefits Arizona, but their humanity disappears in immigration debates.
Maxwell even acknowledged that cars often cross the border "three or four times until they're complete," highlighting the integrated nature of our economies that nationalist trade policies ignore.
When Nintzel pressed Maxwell on whether President Trump would continue with these economically destructive policies, Maxwell responded with characteristic military diplomacy: "I think what you may see at some point, the Congress will make a statement."
Translation: Even Maxwell knows these tariffs are economic suicide, but he can't publicly criticize the Republican president without losing his seat at the conservative table.
RTA Redux: The Transportation Tangle
Perhaps most revealing was Maxwell's assessment of the Regional Transportation Authority's future. After the resounding rejection of Proposition 414 (the City of Tucson's half-cent sales tax proposal), Maxwell admitted they're now eyeing a May election rather than November for the next RTA proposal.
"If I was a gambler... I think more than likely it's looking towards May, but I'm not giving up hope on maybe we can get something in January," Maxwell said, before adding, "I think 414 is probably making the city reconsider some of their positions."
How convenient. When voters reject a city tax increase, it's because the city needs to "reconsider its positions," not because taxpayers are tired of being squeezed while watching infrastructure crumble and corporate subsidies flow.
The General's transportation trauma continued as he lamented the lack of "unity" around the new RTA plan compared to 20 years ago. He noted that back then, the Citizens Advisory Committee had already reached unanimous agreement before bringing plans to the RTA board, whereas this time, the committee "barely had majority consent."
"This last system... was people who were all staunch advocates for one of the different measures, whether it was wildlife crossings on the environmental side, whether it was transit, or whether it was road expansion. That made it difficult," Maxwell complained.
Heaven forbid citizens have diverse opinions about transportation priorities! How inconvenient for the business elite when regular folks refuse to rubber-stamp their roadway wish lists.
Maxwell inadvertently revealed the true philosophy behind these supposedly democratic processes: "We will know we have a good plan when everybody has something in it they don't like, but they see the benefit from the remainder of the program."
Ah yes, the classic compromise where regular citizens sacrifice their priorities while business interests get the highway expansions and development corridors they've always wanted.
Medicaid Machinations: Healthcare Hanging by a Thread
Credit where it's due—Maxwell did sound a genuine alarm about proposed federal Medicaid cuts. He warned that if Congress slashes Medicaid funding through the reconciliation process, Arizona's trigger law would automatically reduce eligibility if federal contribution drops below 90%.
"Here's the fact. Here's the truth. 50% of the births in the state of Arizona are occurring to people who are covered by Medicaid," Maxwell stated. "If you cut the funding to the state of Arizona... the only way to do that, if you're shortfall is to limit the number of people who are now eligible for it."
The General rightly noted that such cuts would force more people to use emergency rooms as their primary healthcare source, creating longer wait times and putting "stress and pressure on the hospital system like we've never seen before."
When asked about Senator Kelly's estimate that 750,000 Arizonans could lose health insurance, Maxwell acknowledged it might be "as low as 400,000"—as if hundreds of thousands of our neighbors losing healthcare access is somehow less catastrophic.
Only in America could losing healthcare for "just" 400,000 people be considered the optimistic scenario. The wealthiest nation on earth debates how many citizens it can afford to deny basic medical care, while military budgets swell and corporate tax loopholes widen.
Maxwell did correctly identify one healthcare inefficiency: "Tucson Medical Center has 45 full-time personnel focused on one thing and that's collecting the money for services they've already provided."
Yet somehow the obvious solution—a single-payer system that would eliminate this wasteful bureaucracy—remains off the table for business leaders like Maxwell.
Prioritizing Profits: The SALC Sales Tax Takedown
The mask slipped when discussing why SALC opposed Tucson's Proposition 414 sales tax increase. Maxwell confessed that SALC believes the city should "raise revenue by expanding business opportunities" rather than through taxes, suggesting the city should focus only on "core functions" like police, fire, roads, and parks.
"What I think our biggest concern is... there's $767 million in the general fund. And we do believe that there's better ways to establish those priorities," Maxwell said, before admitting, "There was nothing in the plan that didn't make sense."
So the programs were necessary, but Maxwell and his business allies just didn't want to pay for them. The neoliberal playbook in action: starve public services, then declare them ineffective, then privatize them for profit.
Here's where the corporate agenda reveals itself: Maxwell questioned whether early childhood education is "really a core function of the city of Tucson." This despite acknowledging that SALC was "part of standing up PEEPS" (Pima Early Education Program).
"Is that really a core function of the city of Tucson? The city should focus on functions that only cities and municipalities... should be focusing on," Maxwell argued. "You know, it doesn't always have to be what's in the charter. Police to start, police, fire, roads and parks and rec."
The hypocrisy is breathtaking—claiming to support early education while actively campaigning against funding it. The business elite's playbook is clear: privatize the gains, socialize the losses, and ensure public institutions remain underfunded enough to justify corporate "solutions."
The Library Literacy Loophole: Robbing Reader Resources
When questioned about the county’s use of library tax money to fund PEEPS—especially at a time when libraries face potential closures—Maxwell revealed the bureaucratic ballet that transformed book money into preschool provisions.
Maxwell explained that SALC was instrumental in "getting clarification" about whether library district funds could legally flow to early childhood education:
"When you look at the library taxing districts... when you talk about early childhood literacy and getting those programs that will teach early childhood literacy, the majority of the county said, we can do that already," Maxwell stated. "At the time the ruling from the Pima County attorney to the board was that the language wasn't clear. So can you use this library district to focus on early childhood literacy or not? And we're going, that's the basis of a library."
This creative accounting culminated in what Maxwell called "the best source for the county's funding" for PEEPS, while hastily adding his corporatized caveat: "Our point is this PEEPS program doesn't have to be funded completely by the public sector."
What kind of dystopian decision-making forces communities to choose between books for elementary schoolers and education for preschoolers? This false dichotomy is the hallmark of austerity politics, where manufactured scarcity pits worthy programs against each other while corporate subsidies flow freely.
The cruel irony is that both libraries and early childhood education serve the same ultimate goal—fostering literacy and learning—yet Maxwell's solution cannibalizes one to feed the other. Rather than advocating for comprehensive funding of both essential services, SALC helped engineer this budgetary shell game where vulnerable communities lose either way.
The Education Equation: Who Should Fund Our Future?
In the conversation's final stretch, Maxwell at least acknowledged that early childhood education "will change our community for the better." But his solution? Let businesses offer it as a "benefit to attract talent" instead of ensuring universal access through public funding.
"There's a lot of organizations that you want to talk about a benefit to attract talent, offer them free early childhood education or childcare," Maxwell suggested.
So children's educational opportunities should depend on whether their parents work for companies wealthy enough to offer such benefits? What about children of gig workers, small business employees, or the unemployed? This isn't education policy—it's class warfare dressed up as corporate benevolence.
When Jim Nintzel asked about Governor Hobbs' proposal to add $120 million to childcare programs, Maxwell said "I think it's a great idea" but immediately hedged with "I'm not sure this is the year." The budget is always too "tight" for children, but never for corporate subsidies.
Maxwell did accurately describe the benefits of early childhood education: "Any child who's been in an early childhood education environment is less likely at the age of 18 to be on narcotics, to be in jail, and to go on to higher education or trade school and effectively employed."
If Maxwell truly believes this, why isn't he leading SALC in demanding full public funding for universal early childhood education? Why is he content with raiding library budgets rather than advocating for dedicated funding streams? Because the business community views education primarily as workforce development, not as a human right.
Political Postscript: The Grijalva Succession
The show briefly touched on the race to replace the late Representative Raul Grijalva, with Jim Nintzel mentioning Adelita Grijalva (Raul's daughter) and former state lawmaker Daniel Hernandez as leading candidates. Maxwell couldn't resist commenting that Supervisor Grijalva got all her signatures "in less than one day," seemingly sending "a message to anybody else who may want to collect signatures."
Notice how even in this brief exchange, the General frames democratic participation as a competition of power rather than a process of representation. The military mindset applied to civilian governance rarely serves the people.
The People's Perspective: How This Affects You
For Southern Arizona residents, the business community's outsized influence on policy—represented by figures like Maxwell—directly impacts your daily life. When transportation planning prioritizes development corridors over neighborhood connectivity, your commute gets longer and your community more fragmented. When healthcare is treated as a commodity rather than a right, your family's wellbeing hangs by the thread of employment status or income level.
When library taxes are diverted to early childhood education rather than securing dedicated funding for both, you're forced into false choices about which essential services to save. Should your children have access to books or preschool? Why not both?
Most critically, when early childhood education is framed as a corporate perk rather than a public good, we perpetuate a system where a child's future potential is determined by their parents' employer. This creates not just individual injustice but collective harm—fewer educated citizens, more social problems, and diminished community prosperity.
Every time a business leader argues against public funding while claiming to support the service, ask yourself: Who benefits from keeping these resources scarce? Who profits from privatized alternatives? Who gains power when public institutions fail?
Hope on the Horizon: Building People Power
Despite the corporate chorus claiming otherwise, another world is possible—one where public resources serve public needs, where healthcare is a right not a privilege, and where children's education isn't sacrificed on the altar of tax cuts or forced to compete with libraries for scraps from the public table.
That world awaits our collective courage to create it. Here's how to start:
Get Involved Locally: Attend city council and county supervisor meetings. Join neighborhood associations. Volunteer with community advocacy groups focused on transportation, healthcare, education, or library funding.
Follow Alternative Media: Support independent journalism like TucsonSentinel.com and Three Sonorans, which provide in-depth coverage of local issues without corporate influence.
Question Business "Leadership": When business organizations like SALC claim to speak for community interests, ask who they truly represent and what financial interests drive their positions.
Demand Transparency: Push for open processes in transportation planning, budgeting, and policy development. Public resources should be allocated through genuinely public processes.
Resist False Choices: Challenge the narrative that we must choose between libraries and early education, or between any essential public services. Demand comprehensive funding for all.
Remember that throughout history, progress has never been gifted from above but won through persistent organizing from below. The current system wasn't built in a day, and neither will its replacement—but every act of engagement brings us closer to the just community we deserve.
What do you think? Should library tax dollars be redirected to early childhood education, or should we demand comprehensive funding for both? Has the business community earned its outsized influence in Southern Arizona policy? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Quotes
On Library Tax Funding PEEPS: "When you look at the library taxing districts... when you talk about early childhood literacy and getting those programs that will teach early childhood literacy, the majority of the county said, we can do that already." - Ted Maxwell
On Legal Interpretation: "At the time the ruling from the Pima County attorney to the board was that the language wasn't clear. So can you use this library district to focus on early childhood literacy or not? And we're going, that's the basis of a library." - Ted Maxwell
On Tariffs and Small Business: "A 25% tariff on a company in Mexico that daily transports $1,000 worth of tortillas into the Nogales area... it's going to go out of business. Because 25%, you think about the profit margin on the $1,000 sales of tortillas, they can't take the $250 hit." - Ted Maxwell
On Transportation Planning: "We will know we have a good plan when everybody has something in it they don't like, but they see the benefit from the remainder of the program." - Ted Maxwell
On Medicaid's Importance: "Here's the fact. Here's the truth. 50% of the births in the state of Arizona are occurring to people who are covered by Medicaid." - Ted Maxwell
On Healthcare Administrative Waste: "Tucson Medical Center has 45 full-time personnel focused on one thing and that's collecting the money for services they've already provided." - Ted Maxwell
On City Priorities: "Is that really a core function of the city of Tucson? The city should focus on functions that only cities and municipalities... should be focusing on." - Ted Maxwell referring to early childhood education
On Early Education Benefits: "Any child who's been in an early childhood education environment is less likely at the age of 18 to be on narcotics, to be in jail, and to go on to higher education or trade school and effectively employed." - Ted Maxwell
People Mentioned
Ted Maxwell - President and CEO of Southern Arizona Leadership Council, retired two-star major general: "Our point is this PEEPS program doesn't have to be funded completely by the public sector."
Bill Buckmaster - Radio show host: "We're just delighted to welcome a new sponsor this week to our lineup here, Pima Consul on Aging."
Jim Nintzel - Political reporter for TucsonCentral.com and media co-host: Asked pointed questions about Medicaid cuts and transportation planning.
Adelita Grijalva - Daughter of late Representative Raul Grijalva, candidate for his congressional seat: According to Maxwell, "took Supervisor Grijalva less than one day to get all [her] signatures."
Daniel Hernandez - Former state lawmaker, candidate for congressional seat: Mentioned as one of the "two best known candidates" for Grijalva's seat.
Raul Grijalva - Late U.S. Representative whose seat is now open for special election.
Governor Katie Hobbs - Proposed adding $120 million to childcare programs, which Maxwell called "a great idea" but added "I'm not sure this is the year."
Senator Mark Kelly - Estimated 750,000 Arizonans could lose health insurance under proposed Medicaid cuts.
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You cut through the political-speak so well. I’m too literal and don’t always catch those hidden meanings.
And at 71, even I appreciate your summary for younger readers! lol
Ugh…😖. Utter insanity. Good note: today in a town of 7,000 we had 10% of the population show up for the Hands Off! protest. Many signs said hand off our libraries.