Published on Wednesday, June 16, 1993
© 1993 The Arizona Republic

Byline: By Abraham Kwok, The Arizona Republic

In an unexpected response to past years' budget cutbacks, two groups surfaced Tuesday and made waves by proposing an increase in Phoenix's sales tax to fund more police and fire protection and neighborhood programs.

One proposal, pushed by a group of community activists, would take the route of a citizen-driven initiative to put 250 more beat officers on the streets to combat gangs and violent crime, add 70 firefighters in understaffed areas and pump money into neighborhood programs such as Block Watch.

The second, introduced by City Councilman Saloman Leija, would be a council-led referendum designed to add about 100 police officers to the city's force, an undetermined number of firefighters and provide an estimated $5 million for services targeting disadvantaged and at-risk youths.

Both plans share a common destination, however: a public vote in October.

They also share a common revenue source: a proposed hike of 0.1 percentage point in the city's sales tax, which city officials say would generate about $12.6 million annually.

''We need more police officers, period,'' said Cynthia Schwartz, who is leading the effort on the initiative along with longtime activists Lora Lee Nye and Richard Fox.

The Neighborhood Protection Initiative would seek to bypass Mayor Paul Johnson and City Council members, who collectively have held the line on taxes the past several years despite revenue shortfalls.

''We support what the council has done . . . but we want to take the politics out of this,'' Nye said. ''It's important that this be a grass-roots movement, that it is the public that wants to make it happen.''

Schwartz and Nye said they hope to finish the wording on the initiative and have it filed by Friday. The group would have until early July to collect about 14,000 signatures needed to place the proposal on the ballot in October.

Leija, meanwhile, unveiled his plan at the council's weekly policy session Tuesday.

Not everyone greeted his tax-hike proposal with enthusiasm.

Holly O'Brien, president of the Neighborhood Coalition of Greater Phoenix, called it ''a very poor precedent'' and a bad substitute for ''government leadership.'' ''In all honesty, I don't think you're going to get better police and fire (protection) with more money,'' she said.

Johnson and several other council members offered mild criticism of Leija's plan, calling it too broad or a misguided effort.

''You're going to have to be very specific . . . 'cause if you don't, those are the shots that people are going to take,'' Johnson said.

On two occasions, Councilman Calvin Goode came to Leija's defense, saying that the proposal deserves a fair and thorough hearing process.

''Staff, work with him. Develop the idea,'' Goode directed city officials in an uncharacteristically stern retort to Johnson and others.

Councilwoman Thelda Williams recommended that Leija work closely with Nye and other backers of the Neighborhood Protection Initiative so the two plans do not doom one another.

It's uncertain whether Leija can strike a compromise with Nye's group, but council members' comments Tuesday strongly suggested that Leija could muster the five votes needed to have his plan approved as a referendum.

Published correction ran on 6/17/93:
A story on Page on B1 Wednesday reported that comments by Phoenix City Council members suggested they might vote for a referendum on a proposed tax hike. The council members hinted that they would support a citizen-led initiative, not a referendum.