What Was Thayer Verschoor Thinking?

Former state lawmaker Thayer Verschoor’s recent editorial on the Salt River Project’s proposed tax on rooftop solar customers is long on hyperbole and short on facts.

Nowhere does he mention that SRP wants to impose a $50 tax on rooftop solar customers. That’s a pretty big deal.

Instead his editorial reads more like a love letter to a monopoly that wants to kill off competition.

Verschoor also trots out the same talking points used by utility monopolies to bash solar.

Vershoor won’t come out and say he supports the proposed SRP solar tax because that would be inconsistent with the conservative principles he has claimed to support over the years.

Verschoor doesn’t mention that SRP is trying to impose a tax on rooftop solar in order to force competitors out of business. That would not be consistent with free market principles Verschoor once claimed to embrace.

Verschoor talks solar subsidies yet fails to note they no longer exist in Arizona while his utility friends continue to receive subsidies at all levels of government.

Instead Vershcoor twists conservative principles to make an argument for a tax hike that would damage a thriving sector of the Arizona economy.

Whether Verschoor likes it or not those omissions speak volumes. They point to a politician turned lobbyist who would ignore the facts in order to support a tax. They point to someone who says one thing and does another. They point to a conservative who has either lost his or never really believed in free markets and cutting taxes.

Verschoor concludes his editorial by twisting the words of Senator Barry Goldwater in order to support a tax hike.

Here is another Goldwater quote for Mr. Verschoor to consider, “I won't say that the papers misquote me, but I sometimes wonder where Christianity would be today if some of those reporters had been Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”