County Taxpayers Taking Double Hit! Pima County Budget…

By Ramon Valadez
Pima County Supervisor Dist. 2

Most years, the crafting of the annual Pima County budget is when we decide on our priorities for the coming year. This year, the state of Arizona inserted its priorities into our budget.

Normally, the state and the county negotiate a reasonable amount the county will agree to pay to cover the cost of some state-funded programs. We then figure out how to absorb it into the budget without raising property taxes.

This year, the Legislature shifted $47 million of state budget costs to the counties. Pima County has to pay up to $23.2 million, or 49 percent, of the total, even though we only have 17 percent of the state’s population. This increased our existing state cost shifts from $82.8 million to $106 million, or nearly 33 percent of the total Pima County primary property tax collected in FY 2016.

We did our best to absorb the full cost shift in our budget this year, cutting spending and using other means to absorb $15.1 million of the $23 million. But to prevent excessive reductions in county services, we decided we had no choice but to pay for the remaining $8.1 million by increasing the county’s primary property tax rate.

That means county taxpayers are taking a double hit. Normally, a primary property tax increase is needed to pay for or preserve a vital new program or service. But thanks to the state, this year we had to cut the budget (every county department had to reduce its budget by 2 percent) and raise taxes. Therefore, county taxpayers will see some reduction in programs and services while also having to pay more in taxes. They get no benefit from either — all of the savings from the budget cut and all of the revenue from the tax increase will go to the state.

The Great Recession caused an unprecedented drop in total assessed value in Pima County. Since the recession began in 2007, overall assessed value in the county has fallen 20 percent. It hadn’t dropped more than 1 percent in any previous recession since World War II.

Yet despite that, we were able to absorb the previous state cost shifts and avoid raising the primary tax rate until last year, when we no longer had the capacity to do so.

If we were able to determine our own budget priorities, there would be no increase to the primary tax rate this year.

As a former state representative and senator, I believe the time has come to demand that the state of Arizona be honest with Arizonans, take ownership of these tax increases and not hide behind a budget that makes local governments do its dirty work.