Phoenix Mayor Retracts Tax Repeal Stance

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton will not support the early repeal of an emergency sales tax on food after City Manager David Cavazos said the city would face devastating budget cuts from the loss of revenue. Cavazos said the $55 million revenue drop would require cuts in city services, closing five of its 13 recreational centers, and force the layoffs of 300 municipal employees and 99 police officers.

"That's not a choice I'm willing to make," Stanton said.

Stanton supported repealing the tax by April 2013 when running for mayor in 2011, but withdrew that support at a news conference last week.

"My job is to do what's right, to make smart, responsible choices for our economy, and to never jeopardize public safety," he said.

The 2% tax on groceries was levied in April 2010 when Phoenix faced a fiscal 2011 budget hole of $277 million as city revenues fell. The tax is to expire in March 2015.

Public safety, parks, and transit receives 40% of the revenues from the food tax, with 60% going into the general fund.

An economic forecast in 2011 predicted municipal revenues would rebound sufficient to allow the grocery tax to end in late fiscal 2013. However, revenues in fiscal 2013 are $20 million less than expected in the 2011 report, and pension payments are $15 million higher.

"I believed the economy was going to be in a better place, and a lot of economists also believed that," Stanton said. "But I'm a leader, and I have to take the facts as they are, not as I wish they were."

Tax-demise proponent Councilman Sal DiCiccio said his effort to repeal the tax will continue at public hearings on the fiscal 2014 city budget.

"Mayor Stanton fulfilled his commitment to the union bosses and failed the middle class," DiCiccio said. "Promises made must be kept."

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Arizona
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