Text message deceit
I want to talk about a text message that you may have received yesterday. It looks something like this.
Primary property tax is not so popular
I want you to pay special attention to this last section, “result in Mesa’s first primary property tax”. What the political establishment has done with their endless dark money is poll you, the voter, to determine how popular certain topics are. They know that Mesa voters do not support a primary property tax. So they use this information to discredit our campaign. I want to breakdown this last section claiming that my initiative https://voteyesonaffordableutilities.com/ will somehow enact a primary property tax in Mesa. That is not the purpose of the initiative. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. It is to stop out of control spending and unbalanced budgets so that we do not have to raise taxes. You may recall my objection to the ASU campus for this very reason. We never had the $100 million-plus money to build it and we still don’t. It’s why the City had to steal money from your Covid dollars to balance the budget.
Hypocrisy
It doesn’t matter to me if you’re for a bigger government or against it, but don’t claim that you’re one while doing the other. The most ridiculous part of this text message is the group sending this message identifies themselves as the United Mesa Firefighters. The issue? This very same group and Mayor John Giles are the ones pushing for a primary property tax in Mesa! So while they are accusing me of wanting to enact a primary property tax and deceiving you they are the ones trying to do it! Don’t take my word for it though. You can read through the publication from 2006. Below are the relevant excerpts. The actual reason this group is against me is I’ve called out their leadership for bankrupting the pensions of our public safety employees while the taxpayer is left holding the bill.
More taxes
Every election a publication comes out and you can read about all the issues on the ballot. There is a “For” and “Against” section. The Mayor along with these special interest groups have been for every single tax increase for the last two decades. This is the real reason they want me out of office. No more questions about their spending habits. They always will be for more taxes, there is no government that is too big for them. They fundamentally believe the government is better at spending your money than you are. Their budgets increase massively every single year. So my question is, when does all this taxation stop? Why is the taxpayer always the one getting the short end of the deal?
In summary
We may disagree on issues facing our great city and I completely understand that, but please don’t be a victim to the dark money and their allies attack ads. I’ll continue to fight for balanced budgets and responsible spending so our future generations don’t have to suffer for our debts. I will continue representing the people that elected me. As always, when you’re ready to see me go please vote me out of office. My goal is to be the voice of the people I represent. Hold me responsible for that and send me packing when you feel like I’m no longer doing that.