Rising taxes result in county shortfall-
November 4, 2007

  Editor:

A couple of weeks ago I received my property tax statement and was mildly surprised to see that my yearly taxes had increased by $30 a year from the previous year. Since housing values in the Bullhead City area have generally decreased by anywhere from 10-15 percent or more in the last year, it seemed strange that our property tax bill had gone up at all.

Then two days ago I received another even bigger surprise from Mohave County. This time it came wrapped in a pink wrapper. Upon opening it I found that Mohave County now demands that I pay an additional $135 because of a “computer data conversion” malfunction.

It appears to me that Mohave County is trying to slip a fast one past us poor, unsuspecting taxpayers and grab any additional funds that they can. With a year to convert their computer system, why couldn't the county data processing people have run their new program before tax statement time and located and repaired any bugs? I feel that this exercise is a poorly disguised attempt to hide a tax increase at a time of massive property devaluation.

All this fiasco tells me is that all taxpayers in this state should get behind Marc Goldstone of the Arizona Tax Revolt and do whatever it takes to get his resolution on the ballot in 2008. Otherwise the next sound we hear will be the sound of more hard-earned dollars being sucked from our wallets and savings accounts.

Wes Nordin
Bullhead City