PRESS RELEASE FOR DISTRIBUTION
1) Voters need to know there's no guarantee for their pet project within a proposal.
"At the discretion of the Executive Bond Committee, money can be moved between projects listed on a proposition but never between propositions."
See the second bullet from the bottom under this link:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0130bondqa26.html
2) Asphalt and concrete are projected to go up up to
100% in price over the net year. What do projected
cost overruns mean for bond projects? Good question
for the city. Possibly that the city pet projects
will get money shifted to them away from things like
historic preservation?
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0129delay29.html
3) Despite the good work of the 700 bond committee
volunteers, the city decided to sneak in bad projects
in with the good ones on every one of the 7 props.
"How does the city decide what bond projects voters
will consider?
"The City Council appoints Phoenix residents and
business and community leaders to serve on an
executive bond committee and several subcommittees
that consider the hundreds of projects submitted for
a shot at funding. For this bond program, there were
more than 700 volunteers on 17 subcommittees..."
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0130bondqa26.html
4) The city and paper are now claiming that higher property taxes are like higher income taxes. However, there's a big difference. With higher property taxes, one hasn't earned anything (until one sells), nor has one increased one's ability to pay the (23% avg.) higher taxes. With an income tax, you have earned or realized more money first. With a property tax, you have a piece of paper in your hand from the government saying you owe more tax, but you don't have more cash to pay it with.
Besides that, don't all of the signs say "No New Taxes"?
"How will the sale of bonds affect my taxes?
"It's similar to the income tax. When you make more
money, say for working overtime, your tax rate
doesn't change, but you're paying more because you
earned
more."
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0130bondqa26.html