Vote, "NO" to Prop 478 Why it's controversial and what voters need to know
Vote, "NO" to Prop 478 Why it's controversial and what voters need to know
We are a group of citizens who are thoroughly opposed to Prop 478 as currently proposed. This is NOT a
partisan issue, nor a time to be political. It’s a time to examine the entire issue and inform the community. At this time, we wish to remain anonymous, and have this public discussion on it’s merits
rather than based on cliques, groups, grievances, or personalities.
However, we do NOT believe a sales tax increase (or whatever euphemism they choose to call it) is the responsible way to accomplish this. In the end, it had a sales tax increase of .95%. There are other ways to achieve this income which we can demonstrate as a starting point of discussion.
Our objections to this increase are many fold. For instance, one is the building on McCormick Street that was generously donated by a citizen of our community specifically for use of the Fire Department. We can understand the Department didn’t feel their needs could be met by this property and the city did
choose to sell it, receiving approximately $460,000.00. But if the Prescott city fathers supporting this tax increase find these needs for fire and police so incredibly urgent, why would they not use those funds to honor the donation’s original purpose of supporting the Fire Department as intended, instead of placing the entire amount in the general fund to use as a downpayment on the new city offices? This does not represent good faith by our current town council in our opinion. New Mixed-Use Planned in Prescott PLEASE NOTE WE HAVE NO ISSUE WITH THE BUSINESS MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE!
Sales taxes are one of the most regressive taxes ever created. The most needy amongst us are hit the hardest as a percentage of their income. Current statistics we have found for Prescott zip codes indicate a family of four with two working adults on average brings home $69,000 per year, Prescott, AZ Median Household Income: Trends, Analysis, and Key Findings, yet that same family spends $78,000 a year to live in our area for a family of four. Living Wage Calculation for Yavapai County, AZ. If you dig deeper into the numbers, you’ll find that $69,000 annual income number drops drastically when you exclude retirees.
Seniors on fixed incomes can’t afford the new water rates, and when they complain, we hear stories that they are being told by the water department to “use less water”. Hardly a humanitarian response to people in need. Any increase in sales tax hurts struggling people the most. Additionally this is very
damaging to all retail businesses in our community….from your favorite donut shop to your car dealer, and everything in between. The people promoting this new tax most likely don’t have the financial struggles of many of the people they claim to represent, so another $500 (minimum) annually in personal living expenses to them are a nuisance rather than potentially catastrophic.
At the August 26 th meeting at the Adult Center on Rosser Street concerning this matter, it was stated that response times in Prescott are on average 11 minutes 30 seconds. Their stated goal ultimately is
reduction in response time to 6 minutes 30 seconds… a laudable goal! And of course they used the throw-away line “Every second counts in an emergency!” Who could argue? But at no point in the
presentation did they address exactly how spending $110 million get times down, they just assume it will! Did you know average response time, as sighted in this article that indicates current NATIONAL response times are slightly over 10 minutes, and the national goal is 8 minutes 59 seconds (under 9 minutes in other words). So how much of that $110 million is being spent to exceed recommended Federal goals by 30%? In our opinion, throwing money at this problem doesn’t necessarily solve the problem.
It was also argued at this meeting our overall tax rate is much lower than surrounding communities; while failing to acknowledge we have a much stronger tax base to start from. If you attend future meetings (AND YOU SHOULD!), note the towns used as comparisons. While all are nice towns full of wonderful people, we respectfully submit they are not equivalent to living in Prescott. Furthermore, some of your city council, in our opinion, feel if other towns have a higher sales tax rate, then Prescott is
“shorted”on additional income. Rather than looking at this scenario as proof of their success in promoting and building Prescott, they look at it as lost opportunity, seeking instead to raise the tax and spend rather than seeking other solutions on this issue!
When asked at the meeting what other funding options had been discussed, the only things sighted was different sales tax rates, apparently no other funding source was considered, and certainly not sighted by the presenters. And while promising that all this additional revenue would be strictly for Police and Fire, we don’t see where this is guaranteed; and not just masking somehow being snuck thru the back door into the general fund…. Just a “trust us” kind of promise.
Let’s start from the basis of assuming the $110 million they expect to raise over 10 years is accurate. KEEP IN MIND THIS TAX NEVER SUNSETS! It may reduce ever so slightly, but IT IS A PERMANENT TAX!
Using their own presentation, the problem is broken down into “IMMEDIATE NEEDS”, “SHORT TERM NEEDS”, and “LONGER TERM”. Unfortunately the situation for Police and Fire is dire enough that a much smaller sales tax increase may be unavoidable at this point, just to get things rolling on the most pressing upgrades needed. But there are options for all three phases of this plan. In the end the whole problem comes down to being caused by further growth. Rather than current residents funding the infrastructure for those coming to join our wonderful community, the newcomers should be funding this as they move in! This is not a NIMBY position, all are welcome here. But current residents should not be funding this when other options are available.
Currently impact fees are approximately $11,000 for a new home. The council is considering increasing this in October, and our understanding is the new rate would take affect for all permitting issued
effective Jan. 1, 2025. A very unrealistically high number (in our opinion) was given for the number of
new housing and commercial properties expected to be built in the next 10 years, at the meeting. So we choose to use a more realistic number of housing starts for the next decade of 10,000 new homes being built in Prescott. We propose (regretfully, as we HATE sales taxes) the following:
The sales tax increase is about a fifth of what is being sought now, and our proposal COMPLETELY SUNSETS! The impact fees based on 10,000 new homes over 10 years is $250 Million dollars, more than double what is projected to be needed, and includes none of the money from commercial development that will come to support this housing boom as well. According to the figures presented at Rosser Street,
at the above sighted meeting (we disagree with their numbers but let’s run with what they said) Police and Fire each make up 30% of the Prescott budget. Based on their stated numbers, 60% of $250 million is $150 million, well above what is claimed to be needed. This is not only funded by the source of growth
rather than the current population, it also leaves wiggle room for unforeseen cost overruns (what government project doesn’t have overruns?) AND an increase in current departmental budgets and the general fund. All funded by the source of the problem!
As we dig into budgets we’ll be updating this website as there are so many ways to fund this withoutbrutalizing the current population to pay for a problem not of their making. Interestingly, we currently are wondering why a city of approximately 48,000 people have need of a 150 page budget other than to confuse the public and discourage their even looking….but some of us are!! Prescott Annual Compensation Financial Report
NoTo 478
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