Cutting Taxes with an Axe: Property Tax Opponents Try Again

From the County Supervisors Assoc. WEB site

7/21/2007

After failing to meet requirements to add a Prop. 13-style proposal to the Arizona ballot in 2006, property tax opponents have announced they will try it again. Marc Goldstone, a resident of Mohave County and chairman of the anti-tax group "Arizona Tax Revolt," filed papers this week to begin the process of adding his property tax measure to the 2008 ballot. The group claims their ballot initiative will implement a property tax system similar to California's Prop. 13 limitation, but their initiative language targets property tax levies rather than property valuations.

Goldstone's initiative is titled "Property Tax Levy Rollback," and would amend Article 9 of the Arizona Constitution. It applies to all taxing entities - a change to the Constitution, which currently applies limitations only to county, city, town and community college districts - and sets up new limitations on property tax levies, rolling back levy limits to 2005 levels in most jurisdictions.

Both ballot initiatives must collect a total of 230,047 valid signatures before July 3, 2008, in order to be considered in the November 2008 election. CSA has scheduled meetings with numerous property tax stakeholders and will prepare additional information to illustrate the impacts of each of these proposals.