In 1980, the Arizona Legislature asked the voters to approve a constitutional amendment that mandates a cap on property taxes, and because counties were unwilling or unable to live within those limits, the State picked up the overruns for over 30 years.
That all changed, according to Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller, in 2014. She explained during a recent appearance on the James T. Harris radio show, that for years the State would “backfill” monies when the County violated the constitution. “It was never that big a deal because it wasn’t that much money until 2014 Pima County passed a record $.61 property tax increase in the Primary Rate. As a result of that, it became very visible in the State budget,” Miller told Harris. After Governor Ducey took office and started trying to balance the budget, the funds for overruns were cut. “They are still subsidizing all of the counties in Arizona at $1 million per county,” said Miller.” Unfortunately for Pima County, because they have engaged in reckless spending, Miller noted, “Pima County has to absorb about $15.8 million and that is after the $1 million is applied.”
After happily living with the constitutional amendment for over 30 years, in 2015 Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry received permission from the County supervisors to sue the State. Miller was the lone “no” vote. In July 2015, the Arizona Supreme Court rejected Pima County’s request for a Special Action against the State and the case now awaits a hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court.
In the meantime, according to a Huckelberry memo dated March 17, 2016, “The property tax oversight commission PTOC is required to apportion “the liability among the various property tax in jurisdictions where the 1 percent exceedance occurs.” On March 15, the PTOC met to apportion this liability. “With only 90 days remaining in the current fiscal year, the PTOC apportioned all of the liability to Pima County.” In adopting this year’s budget, the County only budgeted $8.4 million of the liability….” Huckelberry claims that that amount would have been adequate “under any reasonable interpretation of the law; with others – including the city of Tucson, Pima Community College, and the Tucson Unified school District absorbing the balance of the liability. Based on the March 15 decision of the PTOC, Pima County now has liability for the entire amount of $15.8 million which is 7.4 million more than budgeted.” Huckelberry concludes, “Hence, we are now exploring our legal remedies in response to this action.”
“We should have been prepared for it,” stated Miller referring to the overrun. “This bill was passed last year. We have a lobbyist up there heavily involved in it and if we didn’t know about it shame on us. This bill was passed. The lobbyist I’m sure we knew about it. Now it is supposedly a big surprise and now it is the cause for all the woes of the County,” said Miller. Miller explained that Pima County is hit hardest because it has “the highest property tax rate in the state. Other counties have been hit but not nearly the rate of Pima County because our rate is so high. We are violating the constitution so it should come as no surprise. However now it is the excuse as to why Pima County has these financial woes.”
Huckelberry and supervisors Ray Carroll, Richard Elias, Sharon Bronson, and Ramon Valadez are trying to divert people’s attention from the financial crisis to the financial potential of the speculative World View balloon project.
That might work says Miller because people do not understand the liabilities related to the balloon project. The supervisors are nearly as in the dark as is the public. Miller told Harris that she has still not been presented any financial reports or projections on the balloon company so she does not really know if what her fellow supervisors are cooking up with World View is legal.
“I said from the beginning I thought it was a violation of the Gift Clause. They invoked the Emergency Procurement Clause which means you sole source construction of the building. I don’t know how they get away with that because the Emergency Procurement Clause is only to be used during hurricanes or tornadoes, and you only have one supplier in town that can provide ice or something like that. It is beyond me that they can violate these procurement laws. They are supposed to competitively bid on it.”
Because the County took no steps to appropriately address the cost of overruns, the extended family leave for County employees proposed by Supervisor Sharon Bronson, to secure her re-election this year, has been put to the side.
Huckeberry will also use the overrun as an excuse to once again deny the Sheriff’s deputies their step pay, according to Miller. “There was another memo that came out a few days ago from Mr. Huckleberry and they are using this $7.8 million – which has nothing to do with the law as it is written – they are blaming it on the State,” stated Miller. “He is not recommending they give them the increases. They have been negotiating for over a year and working with the Sheriff’s deputies and now they are coming back saying that Mr. Huckleberry sent a memo saying he is not recommending that they get these increases this year. So it is an excuse. They should have negotiated with them in good faith. We have deputies coming out of the academy that are making the same pay of a deputy who has been there 8 years. There is something wrong with that and they have to fix it, however we always have an excuse and now our excuse is that it is the State’s fault.”