Great news for Gilbert taxpayers...
Prop 406 fails 56.4% to 43.6%

This ¼ cent sales tax is a permanent increase and is 17% higher than the current rate.

Myths & Facts...

Myth 1: The taxes collected from this tax increase will be dedicated solely to Public Safety.

Fact: Public safety will not get a budget increase if the tax passes. The additional revenue generated from this new tax will go into the General Fund, "designated" for public safety at its current funding level. It simply replaces the funds that are currently spent on police and fire, which can then be redirected to whatever program the council wants to spend them on. This is commonly referred to as a "shell game".

To illustrate: A relative gives you $20 to supplement your family's grocery budget. You take the $20 to the store and buy groceries, and then take $20 out of your grocery budget to go to the movies.

If you were to try to explain to your relatives that you desperately need grocery money, how long would you continue to receive their help if they see you at the theater every weekend?

Myth 2: There is a deficit of 12 - 15 Million dollars.

Fact: While there might be a deficit there certainly is not a deficit of this size. The Citizens Budget Committee, assembled by the town council, looked at each department and recommended cuts and cost saving measures that totaled over 19 million dollars. The council has yet to act on most of these recommendations.

Myth 3: The Citizen's Budget Committee recommended the Sales Tax increase.

Fact: The CBC was made up of 7 different committees with the Steering Committee being the final group to recommend cuts and cost savings ideas to the council. Only ideas that received a majority vote from the Steering Committee were recommended. The Sales Tax increase that was proposed by the Fire and Police committees was soundly rejected by the Steering Committee and therefore was not recommended to the council.

Myth 4: We do not have enough money to fund Public Safety and will have to cut Police and Firefighters by 25% if the tax does not pass since each department was asked to cut 15% from their budget.

Fact: This is where the scare tactic is being used. We budget approximately $62 Million for Police, Fire and the Courts out of a budget of $112 million. Cutting this budget 15% would amount to $9.3 million. This is practically the entire amount the former town manager was trying to convince us that we needed to balance the budget. Since it would be irresponsible and political suicide to balance the budget by cutting only Public Safety, we can see this for what it is: A SCARE TACTIC.

There have not been any recommendations from the town manager to the council to cut any Police and Fire employees, or to make a cut of 25% to the Police or Fire department. This is simply not true.

Myth 5: We are the leanest municipal government in Arizona and there is nowhere else to cut or save money.

Fact: We currently have a $19 million rainy day fund and $19 million dollars of cuts and cost savings ideas recommended by the Citizens Budget Committee. That totals over $38 million that this council is not using to balance our budget. Councilmember Daniels stated during the vote to place the tax increase on the ballot "I cannot, in good conscience, vote for a sales tax increase when we have the money to balance the budget".

Click here to read the recommendations issued by the Citizens Budget Committee...

Members of the Citizen's Budget Committee Speak Out!

The three at-large members of the Citizens Budget Committee unanimously oppose the Town of Gilbert's proposed permanent sales tax increase (Proposition 406).

As citizens of the town, we were selected and chartered by the Town Council, to help resolve the town's budget issues. In this voluntary capacity, we directly supported the Town Council. For 3 months we poured over the budgets and worked with the other citizen sub-committees and Town staff in reviewing hundreds of ideas. [read more]