Arizona Backs Sales Tax Increase

Arizona Backs Sales Tax Increase
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Copyright by the New York Times
Published: May 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/us/20arizona.html?th&emc=th


Arizona voters on Tuesday approved a temporary sales tax increase championed by a Republican governor who, despite angering conservative supporters, embraced it as the only way to avert sharp cuts in education and other services.

Although the spotlight has been on the state over a get-tough immigration enforcement bill that the governor, Jan Brewer, signed last month, the state’s fiscal crisis, among the worst in the nation, has loomed large. The one-cent increase in the sales tax, to 6.6 cents per dollar for the next three years, is expected to raise more than $900 million in the first year.

Ms. Brewer, the former secretary of state who took office last year after Janet Napolitano became Homeland Security secretary, has found herself struggling to close a gaping hole in the budget wrought by a 30 percent decline in revenue in a state among the hardest hit by foreclosures.

Had the tax failed, a contingency budget approved by the legislature would have cut money for schools, health care, state police officers and other services.

“Doing the right thing almost always means doing the hard thing, and today, you did the hard thing,” Ms. Brewer said from a middle school stage at a rally Tuesday night as returns showed a solid victory for the measure, Proposition 100. With 88 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday, the proposition had 64 percent of the vote.

Turnout at the polls was light and supporters at the rally struggled to get people, munching on popcorn and sodas, to cheer lustily for a tax hike.

Some voters swallowed hard to pull the lever for the increase.

“It goes against almost everything I believe in but the state would have been hurt really bad without it,” said Paul Mercer, 62, a Republican supporter. “I hope it is the one time I do this.”

The vote and support by Ms. Brewer, who is seeking a full term in a crowded, competitive primary this summer, may have seemed out of sync with the state’s conservative reputation.

But a broad coalition used advertising and went knocking on doors to sell their point that the state’s schools, which would have borne the brunt of the cuts, would be jeopardized without the increase.

At times, the supporters made for odd bedfellows. Representatives of the teacher’s union, usually allied with the Democratic Party, stood shoulder to shoulder with Ms. Brewer at events supporting the tax.

Ms. Brewer’s support of the tax increase left conservatives, her political base, angry with her and in the eyes of analysts contributed to her decision to sign a tough immigration enforcement bill that has dominated public discourse here.

Supporters of the measure raised more than $2 million, with most of the money coming from university and business groups. Opponents raised only $1,215 and billed themselves as grassroots.

Several states have raised taxes to cope with budget shortfalls but Arizona is one of the few to successfully put it to voters.