I noticed that many candidates emphasize how they will NOT vote for a tax increase.
Apparently incumbent District 4 supervisor Jean Bishop is so afraid of being branded a “tax and spend liberal”, she refused to answer my questions about her 1/4 cent sales tax increase proposal.
Jean Bishop’s evasive response from my post about LIBRARIES:
Re: the proposed ¼ sales tax. I believe we need to continue to keep our county government lean and look for ways to reduce cost. This year’s county budget is comparable to that of 2008, we have the 10th lowest property taxes in Arizona out of 15 counties and we are the lowest in sales tax! Mohave County ties in 4th place if those taxes were combined so I think we have managed to weather the storm of the economic downturn by cutting expenses with minimal disruption in services such as libraries and roads.
As the economy continues to improve throughout Arizona, the County expects that the “cost shifts” imposed by the state will abate, providing additional funds to repair and improve County infrastructure (such as roads) and for other critical expenditures.
What a load of BS! You’d think she’d be proud to actually work for her constituents out in the county, get our roads fixed after the epic storms a month ago and to ensure that the libraries don’t have to spend ALL their contingency funds just to keep the doors open while cutting back on programs. I talked to someone in Meadview today and they enjoyed the audio CDs, but now they’ve listened to all of them and the library isn’t getting any new CDs. What’s up with that?
Since Jean Bishop is refusing to discuss the issue and to provide more info, I did some research and here are my preliminary findings:
Apparently a 1/4 cent increase in sales tax brings in about $7 million in additional revenue.
Don’t you think that would be enough for the libraries and fixing the worst of the roads once or twice a year (if needed) so that residents, delivery trucks and emergency vehicles don’t get stuck?
How much will a 1/4 cent sales tax increase cost you?
How much do you spend on taxable items per year?
I estimate that I spend around $200/month or $2,400/year.
There’s no sales tax on food and gasoline, my biggest expenses. I don’t believe in buying new crap made in China and I try to get used stuff whenever possible. I rarely eat at restaurants, but would eat out more if there were good restaurants not using GMO ingredients.
So I think Home Depot, Autozone and Amazon are my big taxable purchases. I order a lot online, tax free unless sold by Amazon or from an Arizona company.
Can I afford a 1/4 cent tax increase?
At $200/month in taxable purchases I pay 50 cents/month or $6/year.
I can afford that.
Of course tourists pay sales tax too, so the “burden” is not just on residents.
We DESERVE BASIC SERVICES out in the county!
Most people out here live on retirement income and aside from paying property tax, they SPEND THEIR MONEY in Mohave County. Almost everybody drives to Kingman to do most of their shopping. They go to Kingman doctors and Kingman auto repair shops.
I’m starting to drive to Vegas / Henderson more often just because I’m tired of being treated like crap by Mohave County and in Vegas I can get higher quality food at lower prices.
Why are so many candidates and residents OPPOSED to having government work for the people?
Do people realize how LITTLE it would cost them?
It’s a matter of live and death.
Getting stuck in 105 degree temps and having to walk a mile or two to get back home could kill someone. It’s not like you can just call a cab or AAA. Guess how I know. Not to mention that old people have frequent medical emergencies. Not only does it take literally HOURS for an ambulance to get here, but it might just get stuck.
Nobody wants paved roads or regular maintenance, we’re talking about EMERGENCY repairs after epic storms.
Imagine the BENEFITS of providing basic services in rural areas as obviously a lot more retirees would move here if we had decent dirt roads and they didn’t have to worry about dying because it takes hours for EMTs to show up. Imagine the increase in revenue if you had more retired people living in the huge number of vacant / abandoned homes. I’ll elaborate on that another time.
A very interesting guest column by Steve Robinson in the Miner:
Guest Column: County’s fiscal ‘trouble’ just fiction
He has some very good points. I’m not FOR raising taxes just to raise taxes. I’m FOR spending in rural areas because we are not lepers!
We PAY our share and what do we get?
Christine I find your reporting to be “right on” especially the ones concerning bishop. She is a fraud of the nth degree
I read Bishop’s full page “article” ad in the upcoming COM paper at http://comaz.info/paper.html last night and I sure wish the other candidates would have had a full page to state their views. It’s only $20 for a full page, but of course they didn’t know Bishop would do this.
Do you know what happened at last Saturday’s “meet & greet” at the MCA? Don’t know whether you’re back yet. Mark Shaver posted something on FaceBook, but he wasn’t specific.
I don’t go to these staged events at the MCA and in Dolan anymore because they don’t set it up as a forum or debate and the residents cannot possibly get a good read of what the candidates are really about.
In fact, prior to the fire board election Suzanne Newell stated at the COM meeting that they ENDORSED the 4 candidates that were present (candidate John Ford said he didn’t know about the event), but no questions from the audience were allowed other than in private conversation with each candidate.
And that’s why so many vote for Bishop out here — they don’t know what’s really going on. The people who run Meadview and Dolan Springs are way too powerful.