Credit: Axon
If you read this blog at all, you know how problematically Axon has been operating in Scottsdale (read our coverage here). It keeps asking for subsidies from the city in numerous ways and dangles the threat of leaving town if it doesn’t get its way.
The latest attempt for a subsidy will come at Scottsdale City Council’s meeting on the 19th, when Axon will come hat-in-hand to get reimbursement for infrastructure costs of up to $9.4 MILLION. This would represent nearly half a percent of the entire city budget for this year and is yet another example of its unnecessary dependence on you, the taxpayer.
Perhaps the most egregious was its rezoning request; without going too far into details that will make your eyes roll back into your head, it had initially applied to have its parcel zoned as industrial or office use, leading to a much lower sales price and as such, much less to the Arizona State Land Trust. And as a reminder, funds from the Land Trust are directly used to fund Arizona’s schools, so Axon effectively robbed our schools of tens of millions of dollars.
But there is some important additional context to its continual attempts at corporate welfare; its stock’s performance. As of the time of writing this on Friday, the stock is up an incredible 30% for the day!
Why? Because it just announced a 32% increase in year-over-year sales in its recent quarterly report and is implementing artificial intelligence innovation into its products. It has raised its full year revenue guidance to over $2 billion. Suffice it to say, it is doing very, very well.
So a company that will make over $2 billion in revenue this year and with its stock at all time highs is not only asking for you to subsidize its unnecessary, unwanted apartment plans as a way for them to pay for its corporate headquarters, but it also want you to pitch in an extra $9 million for good measure. They could very easily cover these bills themselves, but why do so when they can use your money?
Thankfully we’re far from alone in this outrage. Not only have community activists long been going after Axon for its absurd plans, but they have since banded together to hire an attorney to fight the plans. You know it’s a particularly grim situation when everyday citizens are willing to pay lawyers to take on a multi-billion dollar publicly traded corporation, one that is certain to have an in-house legal team of its own. A true David vs Goliath battle.
Ultimately, this request is a bold one considering the results of Tuesday’s election. Scottsdale voters made their voice heard and voted out some members that they didn’t believe were being responsive enough to their desires. Now they’ll have to convince a new crop of politicians that its poor plans aren’t so bad. It would be in its best interest to simply drop them.