A Response from Norm Johnson

Bob,

I am opposed in principle to the much talked about property tax. Currently our elected officials must regularly approach us and argue their case to take our money. It is an uphill fight and I hope an unpleasant one because I do not want our elected officials to find it too easy to get control of citizen’s money.

Property Taxes are too easy for politicians to acquire. Since I moved to Mesa my property has doubled in value. But my income has only seen a relatively very minor increase. Worse then me, I have friends who have been laid off and had to switch to jobs with substantially lower income. Over the last 10 year, the proposed taxation system would have forced me to pay a much larger portion of my income to city government management because my property value outperforms my income. But when property values decline, we do not see a sustained decrease in government spending. When the economy declines the city government must maintain the income base, so the normal mode of elected officials is to raise the tax base when property values fall. Most city governments do not stop spending money when property values decline. Rather the elected officials work to increase the tax percent on property or they work to transfer property to industries with a higher tax base.

I also argue that elected officials have less reason for being fiscally conservative when they have an easy source of money. Currently the city must find ways to cut costs before they come asking for money because they know that citizens will look carefully and scream loudly if waste is found when tax increases are needed. Typically the city will begin their arguments with threats to reduce essential services like police or fire fighters or road maintenance (please note three of the four services referred to by Mr. Richins below are police/community programs). However, after a lot of posturing on both sides of the discussion, taxes are generally given after cost cutting measures are also agreed upon.

A while back you sent out a statement in favor of the proposed property tax, which had included names of some great community activists. The article ended with a wonderful assurance that we would be watching for waste of our money. Well I trust one of those individuals to keep her word but who will be there after she is gone? I know it is hard to run a government but when it comes to citizen’s money it should be hard to tax people. It should be filled with discussion and argument. We (you and I) are the government. If we are going to take your money for the good of all of us, we had better have a serious discussion first. Let us not make it too easy for elected officials to take your money.

Some people say that Mesa has become a major city and therefore we need to act like a major city. Well, what if I do not want to be like the big cities back east (with their entrenched city management systems)? What if I do not want to be like the big cities in California or Washington or Oregon, with all the baggage their community governments carry? There are only three good ways I can see to control government, (1) vote, (2) budget controls, (3) judicial control. The government still lets me vote and I can still file a lawsuit. However, now the government wants more money in the checking account. I oppose our city government having access too freely to my money.

Norm