The Pima County Kinder Morgan Shakedown
In the southwest we call it mordida. In places like Chicago, Illinois, the Bronx, New York, or Elizabeth New Jersey it is called a shakedown. Pima County administrator Chuck Huckelberry calls it mitigation.
By any name; it has become the expected cost of trying to do business in Southern Arizona.
The latest Pima County shakedown is outlined in a memo by Huckleberry regarding the Kinder Morgan’s proposed natural gas pipeline, which will consist of the construction of a 60 mile long, 36 inch diameter pipeline located between Tucson and Sasabe, Arizona.
More than 92% of the public land in question is owned by the Arizona State Land Department and only 2.2% is owned by the County.
In a March 12, 2014 letter of support for the project and the much needed jobs it will bring, the Arizona State Building and Construction Trade Council advised the County in a letter that the “project will create hundreds of union jobs during construction,” and will “provide a positive economic and job creation impact during construction, in addition to the estimated $4.9 million in as valorem property tax revenues within Pima County per year.”