Local governments in Arizona are wasting your tax dollars on targeted political campaigns to convince voters to fork over even more of their hard-earned money. That’s illegal under state law—so the Goldwater Institute is warning them to stop this taxpayer-funded electioneering.
This election season, Arizonans will vote on several ballot measures proposed by their local cities, towns, school districts, and other government entities. These proposals are significant to the local community, can directly affect voters’ daily lives, and may even result in increased tax burdens, which is why it’s imperative that public bodies are prohibited from using taxpayer money to actively campaign for their preferred outcomes. But they’re doing it anyway.
In the town of Gilbert, for example, the town council placed two measures on the ballot—Prop 497 and Prop 498—both of which concern raising the town’s spending limit. Gilbert has engaged in a massive promotional campaign complete with trendy social media videos, political mailers, and other related advocacy. In its materials, Gilbert highlights all the reasons to vote yes and downplays any reason to vote no, sending a clear message to voters that the town wants people to vote yes.
Gilbert is doing this even though state law prohibits the use of public resources, including “telecommunications, computer hardware and software, web pages, personnel, equipment, materials, buildings or any other thing of value” for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election, which includes “supporting or opposing a ballot measure, question or proposition … in any manner that is not impartial or neutral.” Of course, presenting all the favorable arguments and omitting the arguments against a proposal is not “impartial or neutral.” That’s why the Goldwater Institute sent Gilbert a letter demanding that it stop all illegal electioneering. The Institute also notified the Maricopa County Attorney, who is authorized by state law to investigate such violations.
But Gilbert isn’t the only public body engaging in illegal electioneering. Several school districts across Maricopa County are also engaging in prohibited electioneering activities—again, with taxpayer money—to sway voters to approve a laundry list of budget overrides, bonds, and related funding measures, all of which ultimately affect taxpayers. The Institute sent letters to the County Attorney highlighting potential violations by the Gilbert Unified School District, Queen Creek Unified School District, Deer Valley Unified School District, and Buckeye Elementary School District.
The worst among these comes, again, out of the town of Gilbert. The Gilbert Unified School District is trying to convince voters to approve a “Budget Override Continuation,” which the public rejected at the polls last year by more than six percentage points. This time, the district is aggressively promoting the budget override continuation through coordinated signage at Gilbert Public Schools locations, one-sided online messaging (including a video that portrays passage in a glowing light and defeat of the measure in a negative light), and even the appearance of “YES” campaign yard signs in front of some school buildings. Obviously, these actions are neither impartial nor neutral.
Towns, school districts, and other government entities must follow state law and stop using taxpayer money to advocate for higher taxes, more spending, or any other issue on the ballot. Any information about these elections provided by the government must be neutral, unless specifically authorized by law.
The Goldwater Institute will continue to defend taxpayers against illegal public electioneering and other abuses. Government entities statewide should take note and leave politicking to private individuals and organizations.
You can read our letter to the Town of Gilbert here and our letters regarding school district electioneering here.
