Bolstering Our Economy
Bolstering Our Economy
I am committed to strengthening Gilbert’s economic base in a way that protects our quality of life, keeps the town’s character intact, and ensures we can fund core services without constantly asking residents to shoulder the burden. That means focusing on the types of commercial and employment uses that reliably grow municipal revenues, including local Transaction Privilege Tax activity (Gilbert’s privilege tax rate is 2.0% across most taxable classifications) and high-value commercial real property activity that supports long-term stability.
Maximizing Tax Revenue Per Acre
The goal is simple: prioritize high-yield, low-disruption development on the limited land we have left by targeting uses that generate strong tax output per acre, such as corporate offices, professional services, medical, mixed-use employment hubs, and well-designed destination retail in the right corridors. Gilbert already has defined growth areas focused on economic sustainability and concentrated in employment and commerce centers, and we should use that framework to ensure every remaining major parcel is evaluated through a “revenue, traffic, water, and quality-of-life” lens before it is entitled.
Protecting Our Bedroom-Community Character
Most people want Gilbert to remain a true bedroom community, and I agree that our neighborhoods should not be overwhelmed by heavy industrial impacts, excessive truck traffic, noise, or incompatible land uses. The strategy is not to turn Gilbert into a factory town, but to selectively add the right economic anchors that increase revenue and opportunity while keeping residential areas protected through clear zoning, buffering, design standards, and responsible infrastructure planning.
Targeting Headquarters and Innovation Jobs
Technology firms and semiconductor-related growth are critical opportunities for the East Valley, but the smart play for Gilbert is to compete for headquarters functions, R&D, engineering offices, high-skill supplier operations, and regional corporate campuses rather than pursuing large-scale fabrication or heavy manufacturing inside town limits. Arizona’s semiconductor ecosystem is expanding rapidly, with major production and supply-chain investment in the region (including TSMC’s Arizona operations in Phoenix and new advanced packaging activity in the metro area), and Gilbert should position itself as the “brains and services” destination that captures high-wage jobs and strong tax efficiency with minimal quality-of-life tradeoffs.
Gilbert is nearing a point where land becomes scarce and every final entitlement decision has long-term consequences, so we need an intentional “last land” strategy that prioritizes fiscal return, compatibility, and infrastructure readiness rather than short-term wins. Executing that strategy means partnering aggressively with Gilbert’s economic development function to run disciplined site-selection efforts, package shovel-ready sites, and recruit targeted industries with the right mix of speed, predictability, and standards. It also means leaning into revenue drivers that municipalities can actually realize—like local privilege tax activity and taxable commercial real property activity—while avoiding land uses that consume scarce acreage but don’t produce commensurate community benefit. By focusing remaining growth in employment and commerce centers, recruiting high-value headquarters and innovation tenants, and holding the line on compatibility, we can increase tax strength while keeping Gilbert safe, stable, and the kind of community families deliberately choose.
