Our Family's April Newsletter

Arizona's special election on May 18 will ask voters to consider Proposition 100, a temporary increase in Arizona's sales tax to protect education, public safety and health care.

Because Proposition 100 is considered nonpartisan, Our Family is not prohibited from asking you to support this bill, which is critically important to the clients we serve and the safety net of health and human services that has been built in this state over decades.

More than $2 billion in state services will have been eliminated by the end of the 2011 fiscal year, and yet the state faces a looming $4 billion budget deficit. Unless additional revenue sources can be located, the state will be forced to make further cuts to services that affect the quality of life for all Arizonans -- schools, roads, public safety such as police and fire protection, and health care. A new study by the University of Arizona Research Center finds that a YES vote on Prop. 100 would save more than 13,000 jobs and preserve more than $442 million in federal matching funds for Arizona.

Many of Our Family's programs depend on public tax revenue. This year, 26% of the agency's funding - about $990,000 - comes from the state of Arizona, primarily the Department of Economic Security. DES funds our In-Home therapy and case management services for troubled families referred by Child Protective Services. DES funds our Reunion House shelter for youth 12-17 who have nowhere else to call home. It funds our CommonUnity residential program for formerly homeless young women and their children. It funds a portion of our Street Outreach program, which helps homeless young people come off the street. Together, these programs served nearly 2,000 people last year.

In addition, many of Our Family's programs for at-risk and homeless youth depend heavily upon our connections with local schools, whose budgets have been slashed. School counselors and support staff enable us to go where the kids are and provide needed programming and support. Working as a team with our community's educators helps ensure better outcomes for our children. Adult literacy funding, facing drastic cuts if new funding is not secured, is critical as well for many of the homeless or near-homeless youth we help along the road to self-sufficiency.

Many people are asking about the immediate impact that even a 1% sales tax increase will have on the clients we serve. Won't this hurt them more than it helps?

The cuts being proposed to deal with a short-term crisis will have decades of repercussions for the quality of life, employability, and safety of kids and families in this state. Prop. 100 proposes a 3-year, 1% tax increase, which seems a small investment to make in the future given the bleak realities our communities will face if more cuts are enacted to our already damaged safety net.

Given the critical importance of these programs to all Arizonans, not just the poorest and most vulnerable among us, we think it makes the most sense. There may be better options, but this is the option our state Legislature has given us. We urge you to support Proposition 100.