February 3, 2009

ACTION ALERT for all Arizona Taxpayers and Tea Partiers:

BANKRUPT STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ARE MOVING QUICKLY TO RAISE YOUR TAXES

We must TAKE ACTION NOW to stop huge tax increases.

(City of Phoenix Grocery Tax info at bottom.)

A majority in the Arizona Senate voted yesterday to send the governor’s billion-dollar sales tax increase (the “Brewer Tax”) to the May 18 ballot.

Corporate-welfare interests are now teaming up with government employee unions to pressure members of the Arizona House of Representatives. A vote could happen as soon as TODAY. Thanks mainly to grassroots pressure, they couldn’t get a Republican majority to refer the tax last year, but they are now forming a new majority composed of Democrats and renegade Republicans.

Here is a list of the Senators who voted for and against the tax hike yesterday:
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/PoliticalInsider/73032

Your legislators may tell you they merely voted to “let the voters decide” whether to increase the sales tax rate by 18 PERCENT. But you have watched local government, so you know how the game is played. When tax hikes are on the ballot, the corporate-welfare interest groups (such as “Building a Better Arizona”) and the government employee unions dump millions of dollars into buying radio, newspaper, e-mail, telephone and ground-mail advertisements. They spend big money to fool the public into believing that they need tax increases to continue providing “vital government services.” Far too often, they are successful.

Governor Brewer has already succeeded in raising your property taxes. Combined with the proposed sales tax hike, the effect would be to raise the average Arizona household’s taxes by $1,200 over the next three years. The new tax hike would go into effect at the worst possible time: during a recession, when families and businesses are suffering. Arizona does NOT need a tax increase to get through the current budget deficit crisis. The crisis was caused by spending too much money during the boom, and hiring too many government employees. The proper solution is to cut spending:

http://www.americansforprosperity.org/files/azbudgetoptions121509.pdf

Please CONTACT YOUR HOUSE MEMBERS TODAY and let them know that if the Brewer Tax passes on the May 18 ballot, you will hold them personally accountable. (We will post a link soon for those who don't have their legislators' emails. For those who do, a draft email letter is available at the bottom of this post.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

A majority on the Phoenix City Council just voted to put a TWO-CENT TAX ON GROCERIES (in the middle of a recession). The Arizona Republic’s story repeated city propaganda, saying that the council was “desperate to save police, fire and other city jobs.” But the truth is that the City does NOT need to cut police and fire to balance its budget. It needs to cut the “other city jobs,” eliminate non-essential services, and use public-private partnerships to operate and maintain assets such as city parks.

If you are the average Phoenix taxpayer, the City is going to tax your food to support city employees who make a LOT more than you do. Councilman Sal DiCiccio (who voted against the tax hike) reports that “the average cost for all city employees is $100,000, including all benefits. That includes all employees--clerks to managers.” DiCiccio points out that the average private sector total compensation in the Phoenix-Mesa area, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is $54,100—which is about half the average for City of Phoenix employees. “For an enterprise the size of Phoenix,” DiCiccio concludes, “with about 14,000 workers, that’s simply unsustainable, which is why we need to look to the private sector to perform some functions less expensively.”

Please make calls and send emails thanking the Good Guys for voting NO:

Sal DiCiccio
council.district.6@phoenix.gov
(602) 262-7491

Bill Gates
council.district.3@phoenix.gov
602) 262-7441

Peggy Neely
council.district.2@phoenix.gov
(602) 262-7445

Please make calls and send emails to the Bad Guys, letting them know you are not pleased with their YES votes to raise your taxes:

Mayor Phil Gordon
mayor.gordon@phoenix.gov
(602) 262-7111

Michael Johnson
council.district.8@phoenix.gov
(602) 262-7493

Claude Mattox
council.district.5@phoenix.gov
(602) 262-7446

Michael Nowakowski
council.district.7@phoenix.gov
(602) 262-7492

Tom Simplot
council.district.4@phoenix.gov
(602) 262-7447

Thelda Williams
council.district.1@phoenix.gov
(602) 262-7444

To be put in contact with anti-tax activists in other Arizona cities and towns, contact Tom Jenney at tjenney@afphq.org.

For Liberty,

--Tom

Tom Jenney
Arizona Director
Americans for Prosperity
(Arizona Federation of Taxpayers)
www.aztaxpayers.org
tjenney@afphq.org
(602) 478-0146

SUGGESTED TEXT FOR LETTER TO LEGISLATORS:

Subject line: Please do NOT raise my taxes!

Dear [Legislator]:

As one of your constituents, I would like to start by thanking you for all of the hard work you have done so far to try to solve the state’s budget deficit crisis.

But the state budget is still over $3 billion away from being balanced, and I know that you are under a lot of pressure to raise taxes.

I am writing to encourage you to keep working on the budget and to do whatever you can to avoid raising my taxes. The middle of a recession is the worst possible time to raise taxes. The governor has already raised my property taxes and many city governments are raising their sales taxes. The Legislature would do me a great disser

According to a recent report from the Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity and the Reason Foundation, Arizona can solve the deficit crisis by reducing spending, laying off excess government personnel, privatizing state assets, and making fundamental reforms to Arizona’s overly bureaucratic and admin-heavy school district system.

The document identifies $760 million in baseline budget reductions and $2.6 billion in one-time revenues for Fiscal Year 2010. Even better, they have identified $3.5 billion in baseline budget reductions and $1.1 billion in one-time revenues for Fiscal Year 2011.

Please take a good look at their recommendations (www.aztaxpayers.org). And again, please do whatever you can to avoid raising my taxes.

Sincerely, YOU