Thoughts on the ' Arizona Tax Revolt' Initiative?

[tyedyeto]

C-04-2006 Arizona Tax Revolt 200602757 February 16, 2006 July 6, 2006 183,917
Arizona Tax Revolt
4090 Yucca Street
Bullhead City, AZ 86429
928-754-8305
Marc Goldstone, Applicant & Chairman

Mary Bonaventura, Treasurer
1913 Richardo Avenue
Bullhead City, AZ 86442
928-704-1822

This is the Arizona TAX Revolt 'PROPERTY TAX ROLLBACK' proposition by and for the PEOPLE of Arizona, NOT THE LEGISLATURE. Your YES vote restores sanity and fairness to taxation. Like California's 'Proposition 13' this will save our homes and prevent taxing our jobs out of Arizona. Major Provisions: Rollback to your 2003 assessment valuation. Property valuation based on purchase price, no more HUGE tax increases just because your neighbor got a good price for their home. Implements a 1% cap on the tax rate, and 2% maximum valuation increase. Supermajority vote requirement protects us from unnecessary and excessive taxation.

[NoodleBoy]

1. sounds alot like TABOR

which is going to lose anyway.

[tyedyeto]

2. What is TABOR?

Many Repbubs and Dems (most are Repubs) in my area are circulating the petitions for this property tax initiative after seeing their property taxes double in the past 3 years. I hadn't heard about this initiative until yesterday.

[veness]

3. TABOR - Taxpayer Bill of Rights (not good)

TABOR - Taxpayer Bill of Rights

Don’t Let the Name Fool You!

Learn all about it at http://www.azbadidea.com

[tyedyeto]

4. That (TABOR) doesn't sound good

but my OP was about the property tax initiative based on California's Prop 13.

Good idea or bad idea?

[Robeysays]

6. didn't Colorado pass that?

and arn't they running out of money for every thing? or some thing like that?

[NoodleBoy]

7. Colorado did pass that, but then repealed it last November, I believe

even the Republican governor of Colorado, Bill Owens, turned against it. That's really significant, because he basically put his political future on the line to really speak out against something he knew wasn't a good thing for his state even though the rabid republican right was in support of it.

But yeah, ten years under TABOR decimated Colorado, and there were such strong feelings against it that voters threw the support of the state legislature--both levels--to the dems in the 04 election.

but basically, every single group who gets a dime from state government is opposed to it-- firefighters, police, teachers, nurses, and on and on. it's going to lose; I heard some word that it's questionable whether it will pass the Senate (it may or may not have already, I'm way out of the loop on it), and that if people had tried the old-fashioned, collecting signatures method to get it on the ballot that they wouldn't get enough for it.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

9. My understanding is that Colorado's problems stem from having

tied their current spending limits to the prior year's revenue coming into the state.

Then only being able to increase their spending minimally. It led to a mismatch of available funds to spend and limits on spending them. Their hands were tied by the law and it had a major negative impact on the state.

From what I heard on Air America, that was the problem. And they were wanting to revise the legislation that did that.

It wasn't about a rollback in property valuations and taxes, like apparently the OP refers to such a proposition for Arizona.

I finally got up the nerve to look at my valuation statement.

I bought this property in 1991. After years and years of little change, yes the valuation suddenly has gone to nearly 150% of what it was.

I don't know much more than that, but it seems something isn't quite right about this, IMHO.

Property taxes are regressive in nature, as I recall. They don't increase tax RATES for those more able to afford them.

Obviously a higher valued property pays more at the same rate, but the "progressive" part of it comes from increasing rates for higher incomed folks.

So for the moment in the absence of further information I would tend to support such a rollback.

[Robeysays]

5. say what?

i don't get it.

[DTinAZ]

8. Two words...

HELL NO! I spent my youth in California where I watched the horrible effects that "Proposition 13" had on public schools. I was in college at the time, preparing to be a music teacher, and watched music programs being slashed left and right for many years following that misguided farce.

Does "Mr. Holland's Opus" ring a bell? That story was based on the drastic cuts made in Oregon after their "tax revolt" of the early 90's. I have some friends who were teachers in Oregon at the time and their positions were cut, so they moved here to Arizona. It's interesting to note who helped fund the debacle in Oregon...Grover Norquist! Here's a quote from the Wikipedia article on this topic:

"Much of the money spent to promote these anti-tax measures were provided by out-of-state backers including Americans for Tax Reform headed by Grover Norquist"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_tax_revolt

Here's a little more about "Americans for Tax Reform" from another Wikipedia article:

"Its founder and president is Grover Norquist, an influential Republican lobbyist; critics charge that the group is little more than a non-profit front for his partisan political activities. Members include Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, and Richard Scaife." (Now THAT'S a "Rogues Gallery" if I ever saw one!) Here's the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Tax_Reform

BTW, the State Senate appears to have approved a competing measure:

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=60584

I own two properties and am not thrilled about the prospect of paying excessive amounts of property tax, but these "tax reformers" are usually fronts for right-wing attempts at crippling our governmental services, and they tend to "throw the baby out with the bathwater." In other words, they go TOO FAR and aren't in the best interest of the greater good of public interest. They gain popular support because people tend to be a bit stupid and short-sighted about the effects of extreme cuts in funding for governmental services.

DT

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

10. AZ Republic article about the potential revolt etc, interesting

"Property tax revolt brewing?
03/01/2006 10:57:56

By Robert Robb

The notices of huge increases in residential property values being distributed by county assessors around the state may trigger a new property tax revolt in Arizona.

Arizona participated in the last property tax revolt triggered by Proposition 13 in California, but mildly.

In California, the relationship between the market value of homes and their value for tax purposes was completely severed. In Arizona, the growth in value was limited for property taxes levied for operational purposes. The full market value, however, continued to be the basis for property taxes assessed for debt service.

Tax purists don’t like limiting the value of property for tax purposes, which results in dissimilar tax treatment of similarly valued properties. Let the market set the property value, say the purists, and control property tax collections by controlling the property tax rate applied against the value...."

http://www.azcentral.com/blogs/index.php?blog=96&title=property_tax_revolt_brewing&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&blogtype=Columnists