We’re not broke. We’re being robbed.

On November 3, City Hall aims to slap Tempe with a permanent sales tax hike. They say it’s for police, buses, and preschools — noble goals meant to tug at your heartstrings. But don't fall for it.

This isn't about funding services. It's a massive, permanent cash grab forced onto working families to cover up years of fiscal mismanagement and policies that benefit wealthy developers.

It’s a 28% tax hike on working families.

Prop. 424 drives our city sales tax rate from 1.8% to 2.3% — a nearly 28% increase, making it the single largest tax hike residents have seen in 30 years. Sales taxes are regressive and hit working families hardest because every dollar spent on clothes, household goods, and everyday essentials gets squeezed.

Over 16% of Tempe lives at or below the poverty line. Prop. 424 forces working people to pay more while big corporate developers walk away paying nothing extra.

They have the money. They just waste it.

City Hall claims they need $25 million to cover budget gaps. So why are they asking for $50 million? Prop. 424 raises double what the city actually needs.

Tempe doesn't have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem:

• $40 million spent sprucing up Mill Avenue (including a $2 million sign)

• $10 million spent renovating City Hall (featuring a $17,000 office upgrade for the City Manager)

• $83,000 wasted on 431 laptops left sitting in storage

The tax will drive businesses (and jobs) out of Tempe.

Tempe would have one of the highest sales taxes in the East Valley, making our city more expensive than Scottsdale (1.7%), Chandler (1.5%), Mesa (2%), Gilbert (2%), or Queen Creek (2.25%). When eating out, shopping, or buying a car in Tempe costs more than in a neighboring city, local businesses lose.

Rushed, bundled, and unchecked.

Before the new councilmembers were sworn in on July 1, the old Tempe City Council rushed through the proposed tax rate increase — with minimal input from Tempeans. At this year's election, voters spoke: affordable housing and homelessness are issues of importance. Yet Proposition 424 doesn't support either of these priorities.

Worse, they bundled three unrelated issues together — forcing voters to give an additional $30 million to law enforcement just to get money for preschools. Until now, Tempe tax measures have always been separated so people can vote only for the measure they support.

To top it off, Prop. 424 has zero independent citizen oversight in the future. Once they take your money, they can spend it however they want with no accountability.