Pima County adopts $1.7B budget with increased property taxes

Pima County has more than $1.7 billion in expenditures planned for the upcoming fiscal year beginning on July 1 after the Board of Supervisors adopted a final budget Tuesday focused on financial stability and maintaining critical infrastructure.

The budget represents about 9% fewer expenses than last year as pandemic-era funding wanes and economic volatility persists.

The combined property tax rate is set to increase by about 0.8% over last year’s rate and climb to $5.1048 per $100 of a home’s limited value, or the property’s taxable value. The county is set to collect about $544 million in property taxes this year, representing about a 6% increase from last year’s collections, according to county estimates.

Part of the increase is due to the first year of implementation of a policy the board approved in August 2021 that covers increased state cost shifts through property taxes. The state has shifted funding it previously covered to the county for costs like Medicaid, juvenile detention and salaries for superior and justice court workers. The total state cost shift for the county this fiscal year is estimated to be $15.9 million.

Budget highlights include $76.5 million for facilities management projects — including continued construction of the new Office of the Medical Examiner Building and build out of the Northwest Service Center — $23.7 million in Department of Transportation road repair projects, and $14 million in estimated costs for employee raises, according to the county budget.

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The board set the budget’s spending cap at its May 16 meeting but moved some money around to support the Green Valley Justice Courts and Mount Lemmon Fire District with $60,604 and $30,000 in additional funding, respectively. The money was taken out of the county’s inflation contingency fund to offset the increases.

The final budget passed in a 3-2 vote with Supervisors Sharon Bronson and Steve Christy voting against adoption. Bronson expressed concern with a portion of the secondary property tax rate for the Library District going toward the county’s Pima Early Education Program, which provides financial assistance for preschool tuition to families with eligible incomes. Bronson said the program is “simply not a function of the library,” and the money should go toward “fixing our roads.”

Christy proposed a motion to sweep $13 million worth of salaries allocated to positions that have remained vacant for at least 6 months into road repair programs, but his motion failed 3-2 with only Bronson’s support.