Arizona Education Network

Vote Yes on Prop. 100, the one-cent-sales-tax increase 

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Editor’s Note: This is in response to an opinion written by TC.com Editor Mark B. Evans April 18.
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BY ANN-EVE PEDERSEN AND MARYLEE MOULTON

Burn Down The House.

Oh, it’s so tempting, isn’t it.

The anti-government, anti-tax ideologues running the state Legislature have set Arizona on a path to complete and assured self-immolation.  So let’s show them. Let’s ensure that their dream comes true by voting down Prop. 100–the temporary, one-cent sales tax.

Let’s ensure that 20,000 more jobs are lost, locking us in a permanent recession.

Let’s close down schools, super-size our classrooms and do away with those “luxuries” like high school football, basketball and baseball.

Let’s make our university tuition inaccessible to poor students from Arizona.

Let’s increase our property taxes to build more jail cells.

Let’s turn Arizona into a place where no one will want to live and a state where our major employers and our military bases would be fools to remain.

That’ll really show the Legislature.

The only problem with this fight-anarchists-with-anarchy tactic is that we actually have to live in the embers of the burned-down House of Arizona if Prop. 100 fails.

While it may be tempting to turn Prop. 100 into a referendum on the state Legislature, there is actually a time when we do that:  The Aug. 24 primary election and the Nov. 2 general election.

Until then, responsible adults have to step up and do what an inept Legislature failed to do—help bridge the state’s burgeoning budget deficit.

Our state has cut taxes to the point where we cannot continue to provide basic services that normal people agree we need to live in a civilized society, such as public safety, adequately-funded schools, rest stops along the highways, public parks and a health-care safety net for those who has lost their jobs in this economic downturn.

Arizonans enjoy one of the lowest overall tax burdens in the country.  We are 41st in the nation, according to rankings from the Tax Foundation, a conservative group. That’s because our legislators have cut income and property taxes during 15 of the past 17 years.

In 1992, Arizonans paid $51 of every $1,000 they earned to the state.  Now, we pay $30.

When Arizona was one of the fastest-growing states in the nation, these tax cuts were sustainable because we kept adding new taxpayers to the rolls.  Their new home and new car purchases helped buoy our sales tax coffers.  In the wake of the housing and construction industry collapse, it’s clear Arizona was overly dependent on the sales taxes those sectors generated. Arizona now has a $3.2 billion yearly structural deficit because we no longer are generating enough revenues to fund core services.

Obviously, our state needs overall tax reform so that we are not heavily reliant on the sales tax.  But that reform will not happen overnight.  And it will not happen with the current Legislature, whose leadership prefers engaging in a very dangerous experiment to see how many government services they can cut before our state implodes.

It’s important to note that 29 other states have raised taxes and fees in order to stave off even more job losses during this recession.  The University of Arizona’s Eller School of Management recently released a study showing that 20,000 jobs will be lost statewide if Prop. 100 fails.  And those aren’t just public sector jobs.  Private sector jobs will be lost as well.  Remember, a lot of private businesses depend upon public sector contracts.  If Prop. 100 fails, we will remove $1 billion in state dollars and $442 million in federal dollars from the Arizona economy, which will only prolong the recession.

By continuing to defund education and signaling to the business world that Arizona is not only ambivalent toward education but downright hostile to it, we are also risking our state’s economic future.  Arizona’s dubious distinction of being last in per-child funding nationwide already makes it difficult to recruit and retain employers.

The Davis-Monthan 50, Fort Huachuca 50 and Fighter Country Partnership last year warned the state Legislature that Arizona’s failure to properly fund education puts Davis-Monthan, Fort Huachuca and Luke Air Force Base at risk of closure in the next round of base closures.  What did the Legislature do?  Continue to slash K-12 education funding.

Another major Southern Arizona employer, the University of Arizona, has already lost $100 million and 600 jobs.  If Prop. 100 fails, the UA will lose another $42 million and 500 jobs.  It also will have to cut back on offering financial aid to those who can’t afford university tuition, which rose another 10 percent this year because of the state budget cuts.

The head of Raytheon, another major Tucson employer that just announced the loss of 225 jobs last week, reiterated in a recent interview how important state investment in education is to the company, which relies on UA graduates as its primary source of engineers. “I’ve argued we need to make sure we as a state invest in and not continue to cut education,” said Taylor Lawrence, president of Raytheon, in a BizTucson article.  “We depend on the state to do its job.”

Our state, quite obviously, is not doing its job.

But even if you remain unconvinced about the long-term economic and social effects of the May 18 election and remain only focused on the short-term effects to your wallet, remember, you are going to pay for core services, no matter what.

If Prop. 100 fails, the Department of Corrections will start transferring inmates to our county jails.  That will cost Pima County $50 million a year to house 1,800 new prisoners.  How will they pay for that?  By raising local county property taxes—permanently.

So, would you rather pay a temporary sales tax that constitutionally repeals in three years to help educate children and provide core public safety services or would you rather pay a permanent property tax to pay for more jails cells?

That’s the real choice you have.  You decide.

And remember, if you’re mad about having been put in this box by our legislators, don’t punish children or hard-working Arizonans.

Voice your displeasure at the ballot box on Aug. 24 and Nov. 2.

Don’t vote to Burn Down The House on May 18.  Only anarchists do that.

Vote YES for Prop. 100.

Ann-Eve Pedersen and MaryLee Moulton are co-founders of the Arizona Education Network, a non-partisan, non-profit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to providing factual information about education in Arizona and advocating for the state’s 1 million schoolchildren. For more information about Prop. 100, go to http://www.arizonaeducationnetwork.com.
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