|
December 5, 2017
Phoenix - The City of Phoenix is facing an unprecedented financial crisis created by overspending and out-of-control pension costs – topics that were front and center once again at today’s City Council meeting where city professional staff laid out only two options to address the crisis that is already upon us: cut key services or raise taxes.
“After today, it’s clear: Phoenix is planning on raising your taxes. Again,” said Councilman Sal DiCiccio. “I’ve been talking about this since 2010, and first the politicians here ignored the problem, then they claimed to fix it – clearly, they haven’t – and now they’re coming back to citizens for even more money.”
This, despite the City taking in record-high revenues in recent years.
“Mayor Stanton should be front and center addressing this, and instead he’s running away, asking for a promotion. Danny Valenzuela and Kate Gallego spent years crowing about how they fixed this problem, but they knew even then that was a lie. If these people want to lead the City, they need a plan that doesn’t begin and end with a never-ending series of tax increases.”
In fact, Councilwoman Gallego and Mayor Stanton are so afraid of the probelms they have helped create that they even skipped the meeting. That's City of Phoenix leadership for you.
Sales tax, property tax, even the regressive food tax that Councilman DiCiccio successfully fought off are now back on the table - all because City staff refuses to rein in spending, awarding themselves perks, benefits, and fat salaries at the expense of the public.
“The system is rigged against taxpayers,” continued Councilman DiCiccio, “the people who benefit by increasing pension costs are the ones advising Council on this. Of course they aren’t going to get serious about addressing the problem. No one in this building cares how big a burden we place on our citizens, not when reducing those burdens means cutting their own benefits.”
Instead of a massive tax increase, or reductions to key services, Councilman DiCiccio has proposed a far less burdensome solution: cease all light rail expansion.
“We can get most of the way towards solving this problem, just by stopping the light rail expansion. Glendale already did it. They backed out of their part of the deal because it’s a giant waste of money. We’re going to spend billions of dollars – money we don’t have – for a service that almost no one uses. We need to shelve our special interest-driven light rail expansion plans and focus on doing right by our citizens, instead.
|
