Arizona Property Tax Valuation Rollback (2008)

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Property Tax Valuation Rollback
Initiated Constitutional Amendment
Year	2008
Subject	Property tax cut
Sponsored by:	Arizona Tax Revolt
Current Status
Status	In circulation

The Property Tax Valuation Rollback is an initiated constitutional amendment that would serve as a backup measure for its levy rollback, providing relief for property owners who suffered from large increases in assessed valuation in recent year. The initiative would use a complex mathematical system for future assessments that attempts to ensure that similar properties are valued similarly.

The initiative would become effective in 2009 when it would reduce the tax of each taxing entity to its average tax revenue over the last four years or its 2005 amount. As a result of passing the initiative, tax increases would be limited to two percent or would require a two-thirds vote to exceed the levy limit. It would also allow residents the right to petition and vote for reductions in future property taxes.

School funding K-12 would not be impacted because of Proposition 301 passed in 2000.

Overview

This initiative is meant to close the gap that was left by Prop 101 which was referred by the Arizona Legislature on the 2006 ballot. It was approved by the voters and was a step towards limiting property tax increases in most counties and cities. However, there may be a dozen taxing districts on a typical taxpayer’s property tax bill, most of which are not covered under Prop 101.^[1]

Some examples include:^[2]

• Mountain Fire District in Maricopa County had a 43.7 percent tax increase this year and has grown at an average of 33.3 percent each of the last seven years.
• Bullhead City Fire District in Mojave County which had a 50.1 percent tax increase in 2008 with an average of 78 percent over the last three years.

Support

The Arizona Tax Revolt is sponsoring the initiative.

Americans for Prosperity(AFP), state chapter Arizona Federation of Taxpayers has also endorsed the measure.^[3]

The National Taxpayers Union has said that the initiative is a way to settle the gap between taxes and the housing slump. Property tax collections by states and localities hit $388.5 billion in June. That was an increase of 6.8% vs. the comparable period a year earlier while housing prices are down 4.9% from 2006.^[4]

Marc Goldstone, chairman of the Arizona Tax Revolt, hosted a meeting for Benson residents to learn about the tax system that gave Arizona the highest property tax rate of all the mountain states. Goldstone accused the state of creating only Band-Aid fixes for the past 28 years.^[2]

Opposition

Arizona Governor Napolitano's recently vetoed a tax repeal quoting the state's deficit budget as a reason. The veto unleashed an immediate campaign by a business coalition to have GOP legislative leaders fold the tax repeal into ongoing budget negotiations or to place it on the November ballot.^[5]

Status

The group must collect 230,047 signatures from registered voters by June 2008 to get the Levy Rollback and Valuation Rollback initiatives on the ballot.

See also:

• Arizona 2008 Ballot Measures
• Prop 13 Arizona (2008)
• Arizona Property Tax Levy Rollback (2008)
• Arizona signature requirements
• Petition drive deadlines in 2008
• Arizona Initiative and Referendum Law
• Campaign finance requirements for Arizona ballot measures

External links

• Ballot Language
• Arizona Secretary of State, Initiative Petition applications

References