Anyone surprised by the passage or defeat or certain Props? (Phoenix: sales, wage)

[fennec2009]

I was very surprised to see 116 not pass. There weren't any oppositions submitted to the Secretary of State and there seemed to be a lot of support for it. I wonder if people just saw the words 'tax break' and assumed it would be of equal benefit to large corporations, though it was very much targeted towards helping small, local companies.

Prop 118 very narrowly lost and I think that is a shame. It doesn't increase money going to the fund but does ensure equal distribution of State Trust Land proceeds so the $0 funding that happened in 2010 doesn't happen again. There was also zero opposition to 118 so it's surprising that it lost by such a narrow margin.

[Bondurant]

Props like 116 & 118 can easily confuse or be written in such a way some do not understand what they are reading. For the record, the Maricopa County Libertarian Party voted to support 116 and remain neutral on 118.

My gut said 121 (Top Two primary) and 204 (permanent tax increase) would fail but not by the wide margins they did. The Arizona Republic and some politicians worked very hard to cram Top Two down our throats and the "save the kids" battle cry is typically quite powerful.

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[stephen431]

I'm not surprised about Prop 118. I think the people here had a distrust of tinkering with the distribution formula just so it would pay out more during lean years.

Prop 116 looked shady because they were afraid to put the actual exemption amount so they used the "average wage of 20 people" formula.

I'm actually surprised Prop 117 passed. It's going to drop a $9 million hole in the budget. It only caps the increase in property value, not the actual property tax rates. That means developers are going to make bank on this... likely at the cost of higher property tax rates for the rest of us.

[fennec2009]

I had a feeling 117 would pass...as if cities will not just raise the tax rate to compensate. The people that think it will make a difference had to have spent less than 2 minutes reading it, if at all.

[observer53]

If people don't fully understand the impact of a proposition, they vote no. Understandable why one could lose by a narrow margin even without organized opposition.

[fennec2009]

Good point, and I suppose people voting 'no' on things they don't understand/haven't researched is better than them voting 'yes'. However, I thought there was a lot of good information in that paper booklet that was mailed out with all the support and opposition letters, as well as the full text of the propositions. If a voter didn't bother to read through that, or do their own research on the propositions, I think it would be best for them to just not cast a vote on that particular issue, instead of voting 'no'. No one forces voters to vote on everything on the ballot. I myself felt very uneasy voting to retain or unseat judges, because the only thing I had to go on was survey responses and committee recommendations, and it was hard to do research on the justices. I would feel the same way about voting for propositions if I knew nothing besides the brief snippet you get in the voting booth.

[Howard Roark]

I was very happy 204 did not pass. Those who want higher sales taxes should simply move to California.

[stephen431]

Originally Posted by Howard Roark

I was very happy 204 did not pass. Those who want higher sales taxes should simply move to California.

I just went to San Diego 2 weeks ago. The sales tax in San Diego is 7.75%

The sales tax in Scottsdale is 8.95%
The sales tax in Tucson is 9.1%
The sales tax in Phoenix & Tempe is 9.3%
The sales tax in Glendale is 10.2%

I'm pretty sure that when the 1% tax goes away, the lowest retail sales tax rate in any city in Arizona will still be 7.8%

[Jaggy001]

Originally Posted by Howard Roark

I was very happy 204 did not pass. Those who want higher sales taxes should simply move to California.

I voted against the original 'temporary' tax and I just knew it wouldn't be long before they tried to make it permanent. Glad it got killed.

[Bondurant]

Originally Posted by stephen431

I just went to San Diego 2 weeks ago. The sales tax in San Diego is 7.75%

The sales tax in Scottsdale is 8.95%
The sales tax in Tucson is 9.1%
The sales tax in Phoenix & Tempe is 9.3%
The sales tax in Glendale is 10.2%

I'm pretty sure that when the 1% tax goes away, the lowest retail sales tax rate in any city in Arizona will still be 7.8%

All the more reason to vote it down. Taxes are high enough and we did not need a special interest laden tax increase. Oddly, enough the tax increase was modeled (as was Top Two) on measures in California. Some folks are more than eager to bring the worst of CA to AZ.