The question of whether to fund more public safety officers in Mesa and bring an ASU campus to its downtown was on the ballot last night — but voters appear to have rejected the proposed sales tax hike.
Mayor John Giles said he doesn’t think “Question 1” as it was referred to will be approved, even though there are still outstanding ballots.
Most of the money raised would have been used to hire new police officers and firefighters; the remaining funds would have gone to higher education. Unfortunately, Giles said these issues aren’t going away just because voters said no.
“So how we’re going to pay for that is a good question. We’ll tighten our belts, we’ll redirect resources, but were not going to fail to rise to the occasion," he said.
Giles said the public didn’t fully grasp the urgency.
“They don’t know how stressed they are in terms of staffing. We need more police officers. We need more firefighters. That is fact. The outcome of this election doesn’t change that. So we’re going to have to figure out how to do that.”
