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History suggests Prop. 104 won’t keep promises

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.

Letter to the Editor, McCarthy

Pinal County taxpayers want to know why the Pinal County Community College District Governing Board imposed the largest college tax increase in state history. As the Pinal County economy struggles to recover from the recession, tax increases such as these help Pinal County retain the unfortunate position as one of the highest property tax counties in the state. The Arizona Tax Research Association has tracked college finance for decades and can provide context to a complicated situation.

That No. 50 ranking? It's built on incomplete data

Everyone gets excited when Arizona is ranked last in something.

Those fixated on the recent Census Bureau education report should have found it curious that it shows a decrease in Arizona students between 2012 and 2013. The reason? The Census Bureau only tracks charter schools whose charter holder is a government entity.

Roughly 80 percent of Arizona's charter school students — 112,000 of them and the corresponding funding — are not captured by the report. At least $1.3 billion in total revenue for Arizona K-12 schools is missing from the Census report.

As Arizona Balances Budget, Rural Counties Feel The Pinch

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.”

Pima County sues state, saying it shifted burden to county taxpayers

Pima County sued the state of Arizona Monday to block a new budget provision the county says shifts tax burdens away from the state and on to county taxpayers.
In a petition for special action filed with the Arizona Supreme Court, Pima County officials say a provision in the budget adopted in March by Arizona lawmakers will require the county to raise property taxes in order to properly fund the Tucson Unified School District.

Pima County Sues Over New Arizona Property Tax Law

Pima County is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to excuse it from a new state law that would cost it millions of dollars.

In 1980, Arizona limited how much residential property owners could pay in primary property taxes to no more than 1 percent of the cash value. The reason was to protect people who live in multiple taxing districts from paying too much. Until now, the state would cover that amount over 1 percent of the limit.

But this year, the Legislature decided no more and began asking the counties to pay.
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