Municipal and County Government

The Arizona Capitol Times
Jennifer Stielow
http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2017/07/20/legality-of-pinal-county-tran…

Pinal County is asking voters this November to approve a half-cent sales tax to fund regional transportation projects. Notwithstanding the failure to advance legislation that would allow the county to levy the tax at varying rates among different classifications, the county is proceeding with ballot language to do just that.
The Arizona Republic
Robert Robb
Finally, a tax incentive got too big for its britches, triggering a backlash.

The bloated incentive in question is the misnamed government property lease excise tax, or GPLET in tax wonk circles.

At root, GPLET is a fraud and an abuse.

Under the Arizona Constitution, government property is exempt from property taxes. With a GPLET, a developer pretends to convey its project to the city, removing it from the property tax rolls. The city then leases it back to the developer.
The Arizona Capitol Times
Kevin McCarthy
http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2017/03/16/ending-tax-subsidies-wont-mea…

When I moved my family to Gilbert 20 years ago, my friends would laugh and ask where the rest stop was on the way there. Arizonans know well what has occurred since then. On top of being one of the fastest growing municipalities in America, the town now sports a surging downtown along Gilbert road. And they did it without giving away tax subsidies to developers. Bravo, Gilbert.
The Arizona Republic
Jennifer Stielow
Jennifer Stielow, AZ I See It 4:16 p.m. MST May 5, 2016

My Turn: Phoenix leaders need to be honest with taxpayers about bonds and properties it pulled off the tax rolls.

City of Phoenix leaders are telling property taxpayers they aren’t sending enough money to City Hall. This is an ironic message from a city that has abused its tax-exempt status to shield scores of major private developments from property taxes.
The Arizona Republic
Darren DaRonco
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2015/08/06/tempe-mulls-…

Drivers and others unfortunate enough to get fined in Tempe could soon pony up more to help pay for city elections.
The Arizona Republic
Kevin McCarthy
History is replete with examples of grand transportation projects that were marketed to taxpayers and miserably underperformed expectations.

ArizonaRepublic reporter Brenna Goth recently outlined Phoenix’s unmet promises from the Transit 2020 campaign from 2000 (“Promises kept?” July 13). In almost every area, projects fell well short of promises. Most notably, the city built roughly half of the planned light rail miles.

Despite their track record, city leaders are making similar mistakes with Proposition 104.
KJZZ
Will Stone
How are tax dollars being spent?

For the residents of Winslow, the answer should be on an aging levee on the muddy banks of the Little Colorado River.

Brian Cook, who works for Navajo County, stands on top of the wall of earth and concrete that buffers the town from flooding during the monsoon season.

“There’s a bunch of ways that the levee can fail, and I would just hate to see the dwellings underwater,” said Cook. “E911 services, the phones, the hospital, the senior centers.”
The New York Times
Ken Belson
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Jerry Weiers lives less than two miles from University of Phoenix Stadium, where the New England Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl on Sunday. Weiers also happens to be the mayor of Glendale.

Yet as politicians, chief executives and tens of thousands of well-heeled fans rub shoulders that day in the stadium in Glendale, a western suburb of Phoenix, he plans to watch the game on television in his living room, because he has not been offered a ticket.
AZ Central
Maria Polletta,
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2014/10/22/mesa-biggest-…

As the largest city in the country without a primary property tax, Mesa makes up for it by charging its utility customers higher fees to help cover day-to-day expenses.

And while Mesa residents have some of the biggest utility bills in the Valley as a result, city leaders say it's not enough.
Arizona Journal
Nick Worth
The Arizona Tax Research Association (ATRA) has unveiled the results of its review of fiscal year 2014 adopted county budgets.
In the report, ATRA summarized all the tax rates in Navajo County for special districts, property taxes and sales taxes, as well as other sources of revenue, such as Highway User Revenue Fund (HURF), and expenditures.