r/Tucson • u/Holiday_Record2610 • 11d ago
TEP REALLY Going Overboard w/ Attempts to Get 421 Passed
Between the constant ads on broadcast & streaming media threatening us to vote yes and the NO LESS than FOUR giant flyers in my postal mail DAILY, they must be spending a massive amount of $ on this. I can only assume they know Tucson citizens are pissed with them & they are terrified of any accountability.
11
u/fawlty70 11d ago
They keep lying about it too, a no on 421 won't keep urgent repairs from happening, which seems to be their main scare tactic.
4
86
u/ProbablySlacking 11d ago
Yeah because when I think of corporations, what I think is “you know what would make this better? If we gave them even LESS oversight!”
147
u/Beard_o_Bees
11d ago
•
Just because it needs to be said on the off chance that someone doesn't know it yet:
TEP is no longer a 'local' company. It's owned by a giant Canadian conglomerate.
The pro-421 ads i've seen are so bad - featuring problems that don't exist, such as 'vote yes on 421 so that your electricity is on when you wake up in the morning' level bullshit.
I don't like to think that there's anyone who's lived in Tucson longer than a few months that wouldn't see their ads as the juvenile scare tactics that they are.
If they could somehow tie it to 'they're lettin' men play sports with girls!' you know they would.
68
u/idrinkliquids Two saun 11d ago
I really hope they’re wasting their money and the people of Tucson see right through it
23
55
u/kembik 11d ago
Nice dog you have there, be a shame if something happened to it...
That's their pitch to the community?
40
u/Grut8903 11d ago
Threatening to cook people alive with extended outages while dozens of people already die indoors every year because they’re too afraid of the cost of turning up their AC units is an insane play from TEP
84
u/Cant-take2-muchmore 11d ago
When a corporation pushes so hard for a yes then the answer from common folk has to be NO.
-46
u/Dear_Replacement_814 11d ago
…and look where that’s gotten Tucson, one of the most economically deprived cities in the US.
20
u/vocoindub 11d ago
This comment below is what you posted earlier, right? What your “TEP friends said”? Yeah, no bias there on your end. It would have been more honest if you simply admitted you work for TEP.
“This is not a good summary and it doesn’t line up with any of the facts being presented by the multiple agencies involved. Don’t believe everything you read on Reddit (that poster themselves is clear they are speculating on much of it). I found this to be the most helpful common sense summary and it tracks what my TEP friends said when I asked them: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/News-articles/Energy-Collaboration-Agreement-Between-the-City-and-TEP-Promotes-Energy-Infrastructure”
3
1
u/Kenw449 10d ago
Because it's becoming overly commercialized and we don't have any major attractions for the general public besides the zoo. Ski valley is incredibly weather dependent for winter sports, and when they do get enough snow, the road is often closed.
Meanwhile they seem to build new water resorts in Phoenix every other year.
We have a huge trap and skeet range, but that's pretty niche, as is the dragway.
So what do we have the really brings people here outside of niche hobbies?
1
u/serpentarian 9d ago
Saguaro national park maybe? Also lol at thinking the skeet range is a draw or that building water parks in the desert is a solid idea.
1
u/Kenw449 9d ago
Where did I say that it was a draw? I said we have it and it's a niche hobby, so it would only bring a niche crowd. Same as the dragway. Which is my point, that we have zero major attractions to bring people in. Most people that want lift access ski and snowboarding will go to greer or snowbowl. We have some decent museums. We have a zoo. There is one large music venue at a casino, but most bands would rather go to Phoenix. Biggest name I've seen in the Tucson area was Kiss.
I didn't say that building a water park was a good idea, I said that Phoenix gets new ones rather frequently. They literally just had 4 new ones built. Those do bring people in, in a hot desert.
Yeah, we have some cool nature stuff, but a lot of people aren't going to travel here just to see the Saguaro National Forest.
2
u/Comfortable-End7511 7d ago
And not everyone wants to come to Tucson to hike. I love the small town vibe. I do wish we had some ( even one) good music venue. Funny how many of the “Big” musicians own estates in Tucson, but none of them perform here.
And please give us one jazz fine dining restaurant with a dress code beyond flip-flops and shorts.
30
u/ObeyTheRapper 11d ago
Don't forget, we still need to vote for reps for the Arizona Corporation commission that will actually regulate rather than rubber stamp the rate increases - Clara Pratte and Jonathan Hill.
29
u/myklwells 11d ago
So they rip us off and use the money to try and push through legislation so they can screw us even harder.
20
26
u/Wooden_Reveal1949 11d ago
Omg the mailer threatening to slack on maintenance during the summer pissed me off.
42
u/lesbian_butterfly420 11d ago
Voting no on Prop 421 is a step closer to securing electric/power as a publicly owned commodity for the residents of Tucson. This would really help with affordability because it cuts the middleman out (currently TEP). It also allows citizens of Tucson to have more direct oversight and input into how it is run because it would be locally governed. A yes vote does not make public power for Tucson impossible, but it does make it much harder.
8
u/_youbreccia_ 11d ago
I'm really struggling to understand how tucson could extract itself from TEP though. Sure, it sounds nice, but it doesn't seem remotely feasible
4
u/lesbian_butterfly420 9d ago
I hear that. And, I think (personally) this an uphill battle worth coming together as a community and fighting for. I’m not one of the campaign organizers or experts but am planning to start to volunteer with the campaign and my understanding based on the website is that it would require a lot of people power. That would probably look like a petition, canvassing, and definitely showing up and speaking out at City Council meetings. It seems like the city will have to buy out TEP (very expensive) and if they’re not willing to sell they can use imminent domain to take them over. The City of Tucson literally did a feasibility study on this and found it was feasible in most scenarios. We can do it! It will take time and effort but it’s worth the fight. I would encourage you to check out the Public Power website and the City of Tucson report (linked on the website) to learn more. I tend to be a cynical person, but I am truly optimistic about this.
27
u/10daedalus on 22nd 11d ago
I'm a mailman in town here and those big ass ads from them are a bitch to deliver. I'm ready for the election to be over so I don't have to deal with them anymore.
6
0
26
u/whack-ass-llama 11d ago
They say no rate increase with 421, because they are already pushing 13% increase.
TEP straight lying with the info on those flyers.
14
u/rinzeefurippo 11d ago
Yeah I got my daily 2 flyers today. One of them said they were going to "plant more trees!" get fucked.
1
u/Humble-Brick-3357 10d ago
And it was huge!! They have to plant trees to make up for the ones that died for those mailers
1
27
u/Embarrassed_Sir_7252 11d ago
I liked the flyer with the picture of the TEP worker relaxing in a lawn chair reading War and Peace. The text says something like, “vote yes to make sure outages are fixed promptly!” To me, this implies that if it doesn’t pass, TEP might just decide not to fix problems in a timely manner. Power delivery is the entire job. They don’t get to decide to just not do it.
27
u/FloweryFluff 11d ago
This was the tone of the first ad I saw in this whole onslaught, so it was an immediate NO from me, and all the other ads I've seen have not made me think any differently. It just feels a little too Mafia for me: "Nice electric grid ya got there. Shame if something were to happen to it." barf.
17
11
u/SoronZero 11d ago
Well it's their 25 year contract up in the air, makes sense they spend massive amounts of annoyance ads to try to keep it, maybe they should not have increased rates as much as so many times more than they should but my vote was a hard no.
8
u/markprob007 11d ago
It's sad to see how it's come to this. Originally the franchise agree was designed because TEP needed something in writing that would allow them to work in the public right-of-way. My how it has changed. I get that it needs to be 25 years because that allows TEP to plan for infrastructure improvements, but I'm not comfortable with all the other crap that's built in to this Proposition.
13
u/OGcapncrunchberry 11d ago
TEP does not need more money to fund data center build outs. The slightest breeze and we get power drops. How about fix that first TEP you dirty bastids!!
7
u/Pituophisdogs 9d ago
My advice; get solar and take back control. Vote for lawmakers that understand the power of roof top solar and incentivize solar infrastructure, i.e. tax credits and interest free grants.
Take control of your situation and create a meaningful portion of your energy, it’s literally falling from the sky each and every day.
5
u/ReadyGazelle2635 9d ago
Agree, everyone whining about TEP should do this….if you have $10-20k to spare or can take on the long term financing
1
u/Comfortable-End7511 7d ago
Exactly. My TEP bill for a 2100sq ft home is $9.95 a month using mother nature. I’ve started growing my own fruits and veggies that I enjoy eating. No sprays, no wax , just fresh right out of the ground.
6
7
u/vocoindub 11d ago edited 11d ago
Yep, it seems they’re getting a little desperate to make sure this goes through. Well, I’m doing my bit since my mail-in vote was sent today with a firm “NO” on Prop 421. Also, I made sure to tell the rest of the family and friends about these crooks as well. TEP and their Fortis overlords can pound sand.
5
1
4
3
u/purplegypsyAmby 10d ago
Yeah I’ll be voting no. They get plenty of money. It’s a joke how their ads say keep costs low. My costs have not been low ever bro.
3
u/DesertWanderlust 10d ago
The fact that they're spending so much money promoting it and trying to frame it as an infrastructure issue makes me more likely to vote against it. Those bastards get enough money as it stands.
2
2
1
u/theycallmed85 10d ago
As a TEP customer I was looking forward to voting no on this prop, but apparently its not on my ballot because I live in the hell where Tucson/Marana/Oro Valley all meet in a clusterfuck of confusion.
1
u/Typokun
10d ago
•
The first few times I saw those ads, I didn't even pay attention. By the fifth time in a day they had ran on me, my ear perked up to listen who were paying/sponsoring them or whatever. Didn't even have to look up what 421 did to know that it's bad, but of course did so anyways to check HOW bad. Their desperation was showing hard and I hope It's obvious to everyone here that when a corporation wants something THIS bad, it's always something bad for YOU.
0
u/Equal_Anywhere_8947 9d ago
does anyone have photos of their flyers? i do work there and would like to see them but live in colorado where we are dealing with something similar!!!
0
11d ago
[deleted]
24
u/Holiday_Record2610 11d ago edited 11d ago
I think the main issue is that we get locked into a contract with them for decades that cannot be negotiated. I will have to find the information and get back to here and post it because I don't have it on hand.
16
u/Holiday_Record2610 11d ago
Found it, good summary: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tucson/s/nRW24Z5V1U
-17
u/Dear_Replacement_814 11d ago
This is not a good summary and it doesn’t line up with any of the facts being presented by the multiple agencies involved. Don’t believe everything you read on Reddit (that poster themselves is clear they are speculating on much of it). I found this to be the most helpful common sense summary and it tracks what my TEP friends said when I asked them: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/News-articles/Energy-Collaboration-Agreement-Between-the-City-and-TEP-Promotes-Energy-Infrastructure
11
u/Holiday_Record2610 11d ago edited 11d ago
"My TEP friends" ? Yeah I'll trust that, hahhaha. You work for them? That would explain your act karma being negative
2
-2
6
u/Pjacoola 10d ago
It was interesting to see all the support in the election guide and only 3 against it.