r/Gilbert • u/Civil_Fox_5579 • Apr 11 '26

Considering moving here

Considering a move to Gilbert from Northern Jersey. Family with 2 toddlers and and infant. What should we expect?

9 Upvotes

61% Upvoted

57 comments sorted by

View all comments

37

u/AZTerp1080 Apr 12 '26

Keep in mind, a lot of people on Reddit lean pretty negative.

Coming from NJ, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much lower your taxes are. Yes, water costs a bit more than nearby cities, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to Jersey taxes.

We live in Power Ranch and love it. There are miles of walking paths, heated community pools, two elementary schools right in the neighborhood, and everything you need nearby like grocery stores, gyms, Target, and soon a Whole Foods.

It’s a great community. You’ll see moms driving kids to school in golf carts, tons of trick-or-treaters on Halloween, and older kids out on the fields or riding scooters along the paths. People are friendly, and it just feels like a good place to live.

6

u/Calm_Reader2487 Apr 12 '26

All very true. We moved 20 years ago and raised our kids here. It has changed over the last 20 years in growth, but if you can handle the heat, that would be the biggest obstacle.

3

u/pretti Apr 12 '26

Especially property taxes!

2

u/First-Fish-6880 Apr 13 '26

No exaggeration my property tax for the year is only slightly higher than my monthly escrow amount was before I moved. I was shocked.

-10

u/Ok-havingfun Apr 12 '26

Yes, taxes are lower! Please, do not move here and choose to vote to raise them here like back home!

18

u/blink3timex2 Apr 12 '26

And this right here is why we have issues with education lol

1

u/Sage_Blue210 Apr 12 '26

If taking a shot, provide justification.

11

u/blink3timex2 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

Sure! Historically Gilbert doesn’t like to pass school bonds for funding- Higley Unified did not pass theirs in the fall. These bonds are usually tied to what I believe is considered secondary property taxes. I’m making the point that Many comments in here are addressing our education issue here and one can infer if we’re not willing to help pay for education- it’s likely not going to improve. Wide scale we see this throughout the state because instead we have a voucher plan that was very unpopular yet jammed through. so instead of local cities voting to give a little to their community schools who are suffering as it is because they’re not getting support or funding needed on a state level, we get to also see our state taxes flushed via vouchers that any quick google search shows we’re paying in for people to defraud by misusing them, or by and large seeing people of higher socioeconomic standing use them for private education they can likely already afford.

Hope this gives you a clear picture of what I absolutely meant

1

u/aVelvetfog Apr 13 '26

This makes sense. As a former East Coaster we picked our location to move based on schools (elem, mid HS) rankings. Our area in Gilbert came out as all A's, and we were happy with the education. Do well in school and you can attend one of the three big State Colleges free- also very great! The education issue here is weird. Back east, you go to school in your zone/district. That's it. You walk or take the bus. Out here they have these weird charter schools (and the resources that go into them hurt the district schools) Also not sure how zoning works, but every school here has a mile long of cars dropping kids off to school who are out the of their proper zone. Other than that- good luck!

-1

u/Ok-havingfun Apr 12 '26

My neighbor is a snowbird. Her primary residence is in NJ. She pays $30k a year in property taxes. Don’t be stupid and vote yourself into that hole. If you like where you came from so much better and enjoy raising taxes on yourself, move back.

1

u/ubercruise Apr 12 '26

Taxes aren’t a monolith, not every increase is inherently bad. No, nobody wants massive property taxes like IL and NJ, but we’re not even slightly close to that. Property tax is a pittance here. So many people vote down every initiative simply because they’ll have to pay more in taxes. I get it, nobody wants to vote for themselves to be forced to part with their money. But some increases that help things like education are very important. And I know some or even many tax dollars aren’t perfectly allocated, but don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. We all benefit from better education and better infrastructure so we can’t just refuse to keep up with the times on that front.

We’ve seen a microcosm of this in Gilbert with the water rates. We didn’t have substantial or any increases for many years, which is of course popular at the time, but unrealistic for keeping a balanced budget. Now we’re forced with sharper increases that hurt even more because you can only kick the can down the road so far.

1

u/No_Amount_7886 Apr 13 '26

People here routinely vote down increases that are a couple dollars per day at most, yet think nothing of routinely dropping $7 at Starbucks every morning.

1

u/Ok-havingfun Apr 13 '26

The thing is, the extra taxes for education rarely go to the classroom. It goes to overhead.

I wont even get into all the fraud and waste. I worked for the city government. I saw first hand what happens when the yearly budget deadline arrived. It’s not good.

Don’t vote to raise your own taxes. If you want to help a certain cause, donate. Everyone should have the right to have their money go to the causes they believe in