Property Tax

SONOITA — As chief of the Sonoita-Elgin Fire District in Santa Cruz County, Joseph De Wolf oversees the response to everything from large wildfires to rollover accidents involving speeding trucks full of illegal migrants.


He does it all on a budget of only $890,000 – not enough to meet the challenges he confronts every day, he says.


“We’re under a huge amount of financial pressure right now,” De Wolf says. “I don’t have what I need to cover my area.”

As one of his last actions as speaker of the House, Jim Weiers announced that he would appoint a blue-ribbon committee to make recommendations about ways to make state revenues less susceptible to such large cyclical swings.


The commission apparently isn't going to get off the ground. But this is but the latest step in a long and futile odyssey to find a new tax system for Arizona that would produce more stable revenues.

PHOENIX (AP) - The average property tax rate in Arizona dropped this year.


A business-backed advocacy group, the Arizona Tax Research Association, reports that the statewide average fell from $10.04 per $100 of assessed valuation in 2007 to $9.23 in 2008.

The association says one factor behind the decrease is a state requirement to lower tax rates to offset valuation increases.

Another factor is voters' approval in 2006 of a ballot measure that limits growth of local governments' levies.

Legislative Republicans view the state’s equalization property tax as a ticking time bomb that will go off in 2009, but optimism abounds that Jan Brewer’s pending ascension to the Governor’s Office will help them cut the fuse before the clock reaches zero.

Proposition 105 is just one sentence. Seventy-one words about Arizona's ballot-initiative process.


But uncertainty abounds within the relatively few words of the seemingly simple initiative. Would it effectively kill all citizens initiatives or just make it more difficult to pass a few dealing with tax increases?

Lobbyists for the owner of a 3,200-acre property in east Mesa pushed in the last legislative session for changes in the law that would have allowed even more lucrative tax breaks than the ones the city is offering for development of the property, according to critics of the bill.


Mesa deal will save resort developers $85.5M

A tax break for an entertainment district south of Chase Field. Tax credits for manufacturers of solar components. Incentives that could lead to a new baseball stadium in Tucson.


Together, these could create jobs necessary to revive Arizona's sagging economy, some Arizona lawmakers believe. They unveiled their plan Tuesday and hope to push it through the Legislature during the final two weeks of the session.

The primary tax rate for Pinal County property owners would drop to the lowest level in 30 years under a tentative budget approved by county officials.


The tax paid this fiscal year to the county on a home valued at $100,000 was about $402. In the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, the tax on a house valued at $100,000 would be about $344.

Queen Creek property owners will pay higher tax bills this year based on increased assessed property values despite a declining housing market.


Voters approved the town's first-ever primary property tax of $1.95 per $100 of assessed valuation last year to fund the start-up Queen Creek Fire Department and the town's contract with Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.


While that rate won't change, Queen Creek property owners are paying higher taxes based on property values at the start of 2007.

PHOENIX - The Arizona Legislature has tossed a political hot potato - the possible return of a suspended state property tax - to Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano.


A House-passed bill to repeal a suspended state property tax cleared the Arizona Senate with no votes to spare Tuesday as one Democrat joined all but two Republicans in voting for the bill.


The bill (HB2220) would permanently repeal a state property tax to avoid having it automatically take effect again.