Voters lay waste to the whopper

BY Robert Robb
From the political notebook:
Published: November 11,2007

• One of the biggest lies in Arizona government - your property taxes won't go up because the rate will remain the same - may have run its course.

In 17 school districts on Tuesday, Valley voters turned down requests for additional spending from local property taxes.

State law permits local school districts to exceed state budget limits if approved by voters and supported by the local property tax. These overrides had become routine, and school districts began to treat the money not as supplemental but as part of their base budgets.

Voters have almost always supported these overrides. The few rejections were usually over governance issues, not a reflection of an anti-tax sentiment. And they were usually subsequently approved after the district smoothed over whatever disgruntlement had arisen.

This spate of rejections, however, clearly reflects anti-tax sentiment. The same tax rate, of course, means higher bills if property values increase. And residential property values have skyrocketed in the Valley.

People are again agitated over property taxes, although they mostly have themselves to blame. Increases in property-tax levies have been largely driven by voter-approved bonds and overrides.

Whether this is the beginning of a new property-tax revolt or a temporary spasm of voter reaction to the effect of rising property values on tax bills is unclear.

School districts will undoubtedly be returning to their voters as quickly as possible with new tales of woe about the consequences of these rejections. And there still doesn't seem to be a lot of steam behind the initiatives being circulated to cap property values for tax purposes, requiring honesty on the rates.

Still, people are clearly beginning to see through the con that property taxes aren't going up because the rates are being maintained.