What If: What do Phoenix election results say?
CITY INVESTS IN ITSELF
What Tuesday night lacked in drama, it more than made up for in significance. The people of Phoenix showed they believe in themselves and were willing to invest to build the strongest possible future.
Phoenix residents showed they overwhelmingly want a more innovative economy, investments in higher education and biosciences, and a commitment to sustainability and clean energy. And they believe in our decision, made in the earliest days of my administration, to re-open doors and repair relationships with our neighbor and largest trading partner, Mexico.
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Phoenix also showed the world that we support — through actions, not just words — equality for our LGBT community, pay equity for Phoenix’s women and ending chronic homelessness for our veterans. Phoenix showed that caring for one another and doing the right thing makes our community stronger.
Knowing we must step up to meet major challenges like population growth, climate change and competing in a global economy, Tuesday showed that Phoenix is on the right track. I mean that both figuratively and — with the approval of a comprehensive transit plan that will triple our light rail system — literally.
With Proposition 104 Phoenix made an investment in itself. That means not only will we will have a transit system that connects people to jobs, education and opportunities throughout the Valley now, but one that will make those same connections for our children and our grandchildren in the decades to come.
Most importantly, Tuesday showed that our voters understand Phoenix has come far in the past four years, but there is much more work still to be done. We are just getting started.
Greg Stanton is Phoenix's mayor:
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A GRASS-ROOTS ARMY RISES
On behalf of all of the staff at the Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity, I want to thank all of the volunteers who worked hard to defend Phoenix taxpayers and defeat Prop. 104, and all of the Phoenix taxpayers who voted No on Prop. 104.
It is very hard to defeat City Hall’s big-money boondoggles. Phoenix elections are deliberately held in August in order to suppress voter turnout and tilt election outcomes in favor of city employee unions and the crony capitalists who make money off city transit contracts.
As a result, a three-decade tax increase and a $31.5 billion spending boondoggle were passed by fewer than 5 percent of the citizens of Phoenix.
Even though fewer than 2 percent of the people in Phoenix use bus and rail transit, Prop 104 will spend over 95 percent of the money on transit. The 98 percent of us who were hoping for street improvements will be sorely disappointed.
The fact that Prop. 104 polled as low as it did is a testament to the power of grass-roots organizing against a million-dollar Yes campaign. AFP-Arizona has been here on the ground for nine years, and we are here to stay. The Prop. 104 fight helped us to continue to build our army of grass-roots activists in Phoenix.
We stand ready across the state to build on our many policy victories in the 2015 state legislative session and to push forward into 2016.
Tom Jenney is Arizona director of Americans for Prosperity.