ATRA in the News: 2007
Kevin McCarthy, president of the Arizona Tax Research Association, said, "The Legislature's enactment of this reform marks the most significant progress in decades to address Arizona's inequitable property tax burden. This promises to have a tremendous impact on capital expansion and job creation in our state."
According to the Arizona Tax Research Association, state and local debt grew 49.9 percent from fiscal 2001 to 2006. In 2001, total state and local outstanding principal debt was $19.3 billion. By 2006, the total was $28.9 billion.
Rainy day funds exist to allow the state to operate in those kinds of dire economic times, she argues. Kevin McCarthy, executive director of the Arizona Tax Research Association, said road construction wasn't part of lawmakers' intent when they created the fund in 1990.
Although lawmakers don't like the idea of a longer payback period for highway bonds, Kevin McCarthy of the Arizona Tax Research Association said Napolitano's call to change state law to allow for a 30-year bond period, up from 20, is not too worrisome. "It's not uncommon to finance debt at 30 years," he said.