SACRAMENTO – “STOP the lies!” That’s the challenge from a group of Sacramento area business leaders and labor organizations to those gathering signatures to force a public vote on the new arena project slated for Downtown.
Sacramento Area Taxpayers Opposed to Pork (STOP) have begun a signature campaign to stop the building of the new arena. However, many of the claims being used to encourage Sacramento voters to sign the petition just don’t seem to add up.
For example: one claim is that signing the STOP Petition will help get the arena built. This is despite the fact that the arena project is already approved and doesn’t require another vote. Another claim is that signing the STOP Petition will keep the City of Sacramento from raising taxes; completely ignoring the fact that there are no tax increases in the current proposal. The list goes on and on.
In order to challenge this misinformation campaign of the anti-Arena paid petition gatherers called STOP. Crown Downtown and Region Builders have launched a public information campaign called “DowntownArena.Org”.
“While they have a right to collect petitions for any cause,” shared Crown Downtown Founder Mike Tavares, “they don’t have a right to lie to the public to get their signatures.”
DowntownArena.Org has launched a full scale campaign to let voters know the truth about just how Sacramento will benefit from the new arena project. “Over 4,000 new jobs will and $7 Billion in new money; that’s what an new arena will do for Sacramento,” point’s out Josh Wood, Executive Director for Region Builders. “That’s why this is such a wise investment.”
Since the launch DowntownArena.Org, numerous labor and business organizations from the building industry have joined the coalition. They include: Sacramento Building Trades, Carpenters Local 46, Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange, IBEW Local 340, NECA Sacramento, Placer County Contractors Association, Iron Workers Local 118, Associated General Contractors.
DowntownArena.org is confident that the truth will come out, despite significant funding STOP has received from outside interests. Wood even went as far as to question their motives asking, “Why don’t they disclose why a “Sacramento” group is getting so much of it’s money from Southern California? I’m sure it has nothing to do with their desire to steal our team and this project for themselves.