Opposing Prop 100, and Other Tax Increases

by Nick Coons

Combined with county and city sales taxes, this would set the sales tax rate in many localities in the state over 9%, and some over 10%. Additionally, many cities are providing their own propositions to raise their local rates. Prop 401 in Tempe raises the sales tax rate by 0.2%. If both propositions pass, Tempe's sales tax rate will increase from 8.1% to 9.3%; and at the worst possible time, when the economy is in a slump and people are already having difficulty making ends meet.

Governments around the country are suffering from deficits, due not to decreased revenue, but due to irresponsible spending. In Arizona, even during the real-estate boom, government spending was increasing faster than economic growth. State legislators didn't have the foresight to realize that the ride was going to end, and that they should have put money away for a rainy day. Now they want to pick our pockets to make up the difference. In what world does rewarding someone's bad financial planning with more money cause them to magically handle finances better in the future?

The state legislature needs to clean up the mess that it made by overspending before the economic drop, and they need to do it without reaching into our wallets. Each of us has enough economic hardship to deal with, and we don't need to shoulder the burden politicians are trying to place upon us.

Remember to vote No on Prop 100 today, as well as any other proposed tax increase that might appear on your ballot.