The Progressive Voter’s Alliance of Grant County (PVA-GC) acknowledges the 68% vote against the proposed county gross receipts tax increase. This outcome was due to critical thinking on the part of the voters with help by evidence-based educational efforts from a variety of entities, including the PVA-GC, the Green Chamber of Commerce, the Grant County Democratic Party public forum, and the Civil Discourse broadcast by the Gila Mimbres Community Radio.
The PVA-GC wants to go on record noting that we are not against taxes per se. Taxes are how we generate funds to best serve public needs. We know that there are potential investments of general benefit that merit consideration--such as a trails system, urban parks, greater access to broadband so that more citizens can use the internet for education and development, improved youth programs and other recreational amenities that would make Grant County a better place to live.
What the PVA-GC encourages for Grant County governance, starting now, is an inclusive public process, use of qualitative and quantitative analyses to weigh the value of proposed projects, and a more data-driven and transparent decision-making process for choosing improvement projects.