Illustration by Jennifer Kearney

In October, Tucson City Council candidates Nina Trasoff and Karin Uhlich promised voters a change. They swore that if elected, they would implement a series of immediate reforms designed to, in their view, improve the quality of life for the average voter in Tucson.

At the top of their list of goals was their forceful and clear demand that Tucson's $14-a-month garbage tax be repealed. The issue was one of many that Trasoff and Uhlich used to attack incumbent council members Fred Ronstadt and Kathleen Dunbar, both of whom had voted to pass an extension of the fee in 2004.

Voters responded by electing both Trasoff and Uhlich in November by fairly convincing margins, and the newly reshaped council has since begun its work fulfilling the promises made to voters out on the campaign trail.

So far, though, fulfilling campaign promises has only meant relegating issues to committee "for further consideration," the political equivalent of a death sentence for proposed legislation.

In contrast to those of state and national legislatures, in which sending bills to committee for research is not at all uncommon, most potential city measures on which there is no consensus that get handed down to committee simply never come back.

The Arizona Daily Star reported that at a recent city council meeting, the Democrat-dominated council couldn't develop any sort of concurrence on how to handle the garbage-tax issue, despite last fall's lofty assertions from newcomers Trasoff and Uhlich.

To be fair, the new council is just barely into its term, and producing immediate results on serious issues is probably more than could be expected at this point.

However, what should alarm voters about the abandonment of the garbage tax to committee are two things:

Michael Huston columnist

First, Democrats have a political monopoly on the city council. In addition to Trasoff and Uhlich, the other three Democrats on the council have opposed the fee verbally - in the case of Steve Leal - and with their votes in 2004 - in the cases of José Ibarra and Shirley Scott.

It's troubling that a council dominated by five people from the same party who are all on record as being opposed to the garbage tax can do no better for voters than abandon the issue in a committee.

The second reason voters should be concerned about the council's actions is the lack of foresight that they seem to indicate.

The idea of eliminating the fee entirely for all the city's residents, as demanded by Nina Trasoff during her campaign, has since been abandoned completely by the council.

Apparently, Trasoff forgot to consider how she would make up the approximately $20 million that the Daily Star reports the garbage tax brings to the city every year. She either lacks an understanding of the principles of addition, or she is prepared to accept a dramatic cut in the city's budget that no one else is.

Sean Small, president of the UA College Republicans, said, "I think it reflects very poorly on Trasoff because she continuously pressed the campaign promise of repealing the garbage tax with absolutely no comprehension of the economic realities of her proposal. She made without hesitation an unrealistic campaign promise that she could not keep."

In the Daily Star article, Ward 4 Democrat and council member Shirley Scott said, "You can't just roll back a fee without a substitute revenue stream."

The fact that one of the headline issues from Trasoff's campaign was so quickly shot down by veteran council members from her own party should lead voters to question the merits of the rest of her platform.

It also seems that Uhlich, who only supports a reduction of the fee, is now content to let the issue sit in a "research committee" for an indefinite period of time.

Elected officials from any party, in any election, have a responsibility to the constituents who elected them to make the changes that they promised to make in order to gain votes.

If Tucson's two newest City Council members want to leave office with more than a record of disappointment and underachievement, locking up issues in committees and throwing away the key isn't going to cut it.

Michael Huston is a junior majoring in political science and philosophy. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.