In the face of runaway inflation, Gilbert Town staff has recommended the 8th consecutive property tax increase. The case for these tax hikes is usually a sorry story about how little money the Town Council has to pay it’s massive debt for things like the Public Safety Training Facility. However, the Gilbert Town Council on a 5-2 vote gave a massive 5% across-the-board wage increase to Town workers regardless of performance or merit.
The graphic below shows how Gilbert politicians have increased your property taxes nearly every year since 2015. Current members of the Town Council who have voted to increase your taxes before and likely to do it again include Mayor Peterson, Councilmembers Scott Anderson, Kathy Tilque, Young Kaprowski, and Scott September. Up for election this year include Kaprowski and September.
This chart shows how the “Levy” or the actual amount of money taken from the taxpayer has continued to rise faster than inflation. This means you will be paying more for the same or reduced levels of service next year. Remember, much of this tax increase is due to the gold-plated Public Safety Training Facility which cost Gilbert taxpayers three times the market rate. It also means you will have less and less to spend on your business and family.
To pass this bond, many politicians like the unpopular Mayor Brigette Peterson, lied to Gilbert taxpayers in claiming that this bond would require no tax increase. Since it’s passed more than three tax increases have been required to pay this unnecessary debt.
What should we do rather than raise taxes? Don’t we have to pay our debts now that we are saddled with them? Of course, and the fact is we have options. Gilbert, like so many other cities and towns across the nation, are flush with cash. The Town has raked in millions of dollars to use on this debt rather than further burden the Gilbert taxpayers. This was done in 2016 as the graph shows.
Generally, public apathy and government spin by the Town PR machine–with their $90,000 social media analyst–allows our local politicians to pass whatever they want. If you disagree with yet another tax increase, you will need to personally call each member of the Town Council and share your views. State law requires cities and towns to public a notice to residents each time they plan to raise taxes or rates. The formal notice can be found here.
If you would like to contact members of the Town Council, you may start here.