Integrity should still matter

I want to address a recent video that my opponent and our Mayor made claiming that I’m for drastic cuts and trying to enact a primary property tax. I wrote an article on the primary property tax which you can read here. However, I want to make sure everyone is clear about what causes our taxes to go up and what causes them to go down. I want to prefix this by saying there is a lot of common sense here. Like the more of your money they spend the higher your taxes are going to be with the opposite being true. Bear with me while I explain.

Giles chaired the committee trying to enact a primary property tax in 2006 because he loves taxes

It’s ok to be a big-government politician. Some people believe that the government is better at spending our money than we are. However, it is not ok to be one while pretending to be a small-government conservative. While claiming that I want to raise taxes the Mayor has advocated for higher taxes for over two decades. John Giles even chaired the board to enact a primary property tax in 2006 while claiming that I am the one pushing for a primary property tax. Scroll down to see all the tax increases Giles has supported over the last 2 decades. I do not believe there is a single person in Mesa who has advocated for more taxes than John Giles. He loves taxes. This is why he wants me off the Council. I do not believe more taxes is going to solve our problems. Not only do I believe this I’ve advocated for it since I opposed the 23% sales tax increase in 2016.

Taxes

First, you should understand that politicians poll you to see what topics are popular and which are not. Then they use these buzzwords to determine how they can attach the negative keywords to their opponent while emphasizing their support for the buzzwords that you care about. In the above video, the Mayor indicates that I’m for a “primary property tax”.

Further, if you look at my opponent’s latest mailer she talks about “cause Mesa to enact its primary property tax”. Does she think that we can just flip a switch and “enact” a primary property tax? It doesn’t work this way. It has to go out to the voters. This flyer gives a false narrative that it can simply be “turned on”.

Why does Giles and your opponent lie about their support for a primary property tax?

He does this because he knows the issue is wildly unpopular amongst Mesa voters. Because in 2006 he chaired the campaign to try and enact a primary property tax. The truth is I’ve been opposing their wasteful spending for the last four years. In fact, I’ve voted against multiple budgets because they were unbalanced. Meaning we are currently spending more than we take in revenues. The way that the budget has been legally balanced is drawing out money from our utilities placing them in grave danger as they become underfunded for necessary capital improvement projects. But make no mistake they will come to the voters in the next couple of years and ask you for billions in new debt.

Reserves being depleted, what do you think the Mayor will do once he’s finished depleting our reserves?

Year after year Giles and his friends have passed an unbalanced budget. They steal the money from the reserves which will eventually run out. They have no plan once this money is gone.

Budgets must be balanced

I will never support a budget that is not balanced and this makes me wildly unpopular with people who benefit from increased spending. See link, “Who’s buying the Mayor and Mesa City Council“.

Steal Money from Covid support fund

This year the federal government gave us $90 million dollars to address Covid related concerns in our community. The City took $50 million of this to balance their budget. While not buying a single piece of personal protective equipment for you, the citizens of Mesa.

In the last 20 years there is not a single person who has advocated for more taxes than John Giles

Below are all the voter publicity pamphlets you receive when you’re voting. Every time there is a new tax you can almost bet you’ll find John Giles name.

2018

2016

In 2016 you were asked if you wanted to spend money to build an ASU campus in downtown Mesa. This vote failed. This is the one you should be most upset about. After you voted down the sales tax they stole the money from our utilities because that didn’t require voter approval and they knew this. More details here. They have to push these projects through because their deep-pocketed donors to their political campaigns would not support them.

2014

The utility bonds become tricky and I support these with a clause. But let me tell you where the deceit comes in. If the City was not draining all of the savings from our utilities every year by transferring it out to the “general fund”, “economic development fund”, and ASU all of these bonds would not be necessary. Some perhaps, but not in the amount that they propose. The image below I pulled from an article about why I opposed the ASU campus. It can be found here. Pay attention to the ending reserve balance line of our utility system. The current Mayor and City Council are draining our savings from our utilities. It’s why I started “Yes on Affordable Utilities“. This will lead to massive utility rate hikes in the future. This graph is old. The latest ones show us now running out of money in the next five years.

2007

2006

2002 – Cardinals Stadium

2000

1998

In summary

Bureaucrats are always increasing our taxes because they fundamentally believe that they are better at spending our money than we are. I will continue to fight against tax increases and out of control spending.