Jo-ann Marks is like lots of county homeowners — fed up with her growing property-tax burden.
You probably know the feeling.
A far-east-side resident, Marks wrote me in desperation last week, and later we talked about what the property-tax alternatives are. In short, she wants those who aren’t property owners to “participate in the cost of things” in Pima County — basically, pay more of a share.
Then, coincidentally, County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry dropped his proposed budget for next year on Thursday. Ta-da! It included another proposed increased in the tax rate for the already overburdened Pima County property-tax payer.
Under Huckelberry’s proposal, Pima County’s primary property tax rate would rise by 10.98 cents to $4.3877 per $100 of taxable assessed value. Already the highest rate in the state, our rate would set a new standard.
To be fair, recent tax-rate increases haven’t necessarily increased a homeowner’s tax bill, because pretty much all of our houses lost value during the market’s bust. But while many of our tax bills declined or stayed stable in recent years, now increasing home values are likely to drive up tax bills as well.
Huckelberry says, and the numbers seem to show, that no increase would be necessary next year if the state Legislature hadn’t shifted $20 million or so in costs to Pima County this year. True enough, but we all know this isn’t just a one-year problem. So what are the alternatives for spreading the tax burden, finding new revenue sources and also taking care of our godforsaken roads?
One is a sales tax. That’s what Marks, a retired psychotherapist, told me she favors. Pima is the only county in the state without its own sales tax, though we do pay a half-cent per dollar toward the Regional Transportation Authority (more on that later).
“We need everyone to participate in paying for the services that we all use,” she told me.
The problem with that is, state law says any county with under 1.5 million in population can pass a sales tax only with a unanimous vote of the board of supervisors. Until 2012, when Pinal County’s board membership went from three to five, Pima County was the only one of the 14 outside Maricopa with a five-member board.
So while smaller counties with their three-member boards have been able to pass sales taxes unanimously, Pima County’s board has never had complete support for the idea. Even now at least two, if not more, of the board members oppose a sales tax, even if it would be used to offset property taxes or pay for roads.
Both Republican Ray Carroll and Democrat Richard Elias told me they oppose sales taxes because they are regressive, hurting the poor proportionately more than the wealthier.
Republican Ally Miller, who has at times has left her door open to a sales tax, rejected the idea Friday. She wouldn’t support one, even if it’s dedicated to roads, until all Vehicle License Tax and Highway User Revenue Fund money sent to the county is spent directly on roads, she told me.
So, like it or not, in Pima County a sales tax is not an option now for offsetting property taxes or for paying for road maintenance. The votes aren’t there.
But of course, a countywide sales tax is already here — it exists to pay for improvements in our transportation “mobility” around Tucson through the Regional Transportation Authority plan. But it doesn’t go to Pima County, the government entity.
We Pima County voters approved that half-cent-per-dollar sales tax in 2006, along with a 20-year plan of metrowide road building, transit improvements, sidewalks and related projects.
We’re about halfway in. And increasingly, there are rumblings about what to do when this sales tax ends in 2026, or even before. The idea, talked up by Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik and others, is to extend the end date of the tax beyond 2026, and at the same time change what the money could be used for.
Maybe some of the tax revenue could go toward road maintenance instead of just construction and widening, Kozachik and others have argued.
“We have started those preliminary discussions at the RTA,” Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild told me via email on Friday.
Rothschild is chairman of the RTA board, which would have to pass a resolution asking for any extension or change in the sales tax. Then it would have to go to the Pima County board to be put on the ballot. Using RTA sales-tax money for road maintenance would also require a change in the state law that authorized the special taxing district, Rothschild noted.
“I’ve been advocating for this for several years,” he wrote me. “We need to re-authorize the RTA and in doing so, determine what will be the needs for the next twenty years — which will include more road restoration, regional transit needs, alternative modes of transportation and, where appropriate, road expansion.”
Among other supporters of the broad idea is Miller, the Republican supervisor, and Sharon Bronson, the Democrat who chairs the supervisors.
“It’s not the ideal solution,” Bronson cautioned. “The ideal solution is a community, regional and statewide conversation on how we build capacity and maintain the existing capacity.”
So the RTA is an option, but a limited, medium-term one that would help with the roads problem but perhaps have little effect on property taxes.
If we want to offset property taxes a bit over the shorter term, there is one other alternative. A majority vote of the Pima County supervisors could put a ¼-cent excise tax for the Pima County jail on the ballot. That is projected to produce about $40 million a year in revenue, or about two-thirds of the jail’s budget.
Of course, any revenue that tax produces could be used to offset property taxes. Bronson says that’s what she wants.
“I would only support it if there was a binding commitment to use those dollars to offset property taxes,” she said.
So that’s a place to start, though this probably isn’t the year. Voters have enough on their ballot with seven bond questions totaling $815 million in potential spending that could also result in a property-tax increase.
So let’s see what we do with the bonds this year, then start whittling away at the property tax with a jail tax next year.
