Ballot measure honesty scary for supporters

If you don't like the truth being told, then sue to stop it.

That seems to be the philosophy of supporters of a ballot measure that increases the state sales tax to pay for a gigantic 30-year transportation plan for Arizona. It seeks the approval of voters in November.

The dispute is over the wording to describe the Transportation and Infrastructure Moving Arizona's Economy (TIME) initiative that is to be included in a information booklet on ballot measures that will be sent to voters before the election.

TIME attorneys filed suit to stop the wording approved by the Legislative Council, a body made up of Democratic and Republican lawmakers that is required to come up with a summarized "impartial" analysis of each ballot measure for voters.

TIME attorneys say the council's analysis is misleading because it says the transportation measure will require "a 17.8 percent tax increase." Initiative supporters acknowledge that description is accurate because it would increase the state sales tax from 5.6 cents per dollar to 6.6 cents, or 17.8 percent.

That's scary and the TIME folks know it - they say it would discourage voters from approving the measure. That is why they want the analysis to say the cost is 1 cent per dollar instead of a 17.8 percent increase. They also want the tax mentioned last while all the planned improvements would be listed first.

That is the typical scam perpetrated by supporters of tax increases. They play down the cost, hoping voters will shrug it off and approve the desired program. It happens over and over again.

After a while, taxpayers see that all those "small" increases add up and they are paying a lot of their hard-earned money for these "inexpensive" public programs. That is especially true of sales tax increases, which are always sold to voters as costing "just pennies."

Keep the wording the way it is. Maybe this kind of honesty about the true cost will cause voters to more carefully consider proposed public programs like this transportation initiative.