A citizens group wants the Tucson City Council to add five questions to the November ballot, mostly to ask citizens whether they want the city to have more financial flexibility.
After discussing such sweeping topics as totally overhauling the elections system and the structure of city government, the Charter Review Committee opted to recommend giving the city more financial tools and giving the mayor a tad more power.
The committee also recommended the City Council create a task force to continue looking at the larger changes to the charter, which is essentially the city’s constitution.
The council is expected to start reviewing the recommendations Tuesday, but not to act right away.
The recommendations include exempting the secondary property tax from the current $1.75 per $100 value limit on city property taxes, and allowing the city to use sales-tax revenue in bonding — but only with voter approval.
Tucson is the only city in the state that has those limitations, and that handicaps the city, said John Hinderaker, a committee member and Tucson attorney.
“None of these are going to result in a tax increase,” Hinderaker said. “These are simply ways to allow the city to raise money with voter approval.”
The property tax cap, set in 1969, is $1.75 per $100 of assessed value. The cap applies to the combined primary property tax, used to pay operating expenses, and secondary, used to pay off voter-approved debt.
The recommended change would allow the city to ask voters to approve any proposed tax increase, and state law already prohibits the city from asking for any increase of more than 2 percent per year.
Another change would allow the city to take loans backed by future sales-tax revenue.
Tucson is the only city in the state that can’t do that, which “forces Tucson to use less flexible financing vehicles that carry higher interest rates and other charges but provides no meaningful protection to taxpayers … in return,” committee chairman Kasey Nye said in his report to mayor and council.
Additional recommendations are to allow the city to increase sales taxes — but only with voter approval — and to allow the city to tax or bond to buy or support public art and cultural facilities.
The last recommended ballot measure deals with giving the mayor more power and makes a number of technical updates to the charter.
The charter now requires four of the six council members be present at meetings. The mayor doesn’t count toward a quorum, which the committee recommends changing.
The mayor also doesn’t have a vote to remove the city manager or some other top officials, which the committee recommends changing.
The committee recommends each item be a separate question on the ballot, so if some measures fail the others may succeed.
