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orchardranchres
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Posted: Sat Jun 13th, 2009 01:59 am |
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Councilman Brown, I have called the offices below, but only got to leave my opinion with the phone person and not Gov Brewer or the Senators. Thanks for keeping us informed on this.
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QCVillager
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Posted: Fri Jun 12th, 2009 06:41 pm |
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from today's EV Trib...
OUR VIEW
Keep impact fee decision out of state budget
The Valley’s homebuilders might have a great argument for a bit of fiscally responsible economic stimulus — suspend those hefty impact fees that cities and counties charge, which can increase the price of a house by up to $20,000.
Give people a chance to buy a more affordable new house or business. Put more people to work. Get one of Arizona’s key industries moving again. But if lawmakers succeed in adopting this temporary suspension of impact fees as part of the state budget, they will have abused the legislative process and bypassed a proper vetting of the competing interests involved.
As Capitol Media Services reported last week, a three-year suspension of impact fees was included in the package of budget bills adopted by Republicans who control the Legislature. Local impact fees are a matter of state policy, but the issue is not immediately relevant to the state budget. Local governments assess the fees and spend the money on local infrastructure projects. Raising or lowering impact fees has no direct tie to state spending and taxation.
The state Supreme Court has gently chastised the Legislature in the past for adopting nonspending policy decisions through budget bills. The constitutional questions can be technical, but the concern boils down to the fact that Arizona founders believed the Legislature should weigh proposed policies separately on their own merits, instead of lumping together unrelated matters in the same bill.
When that happens, some lawmakers might be forced to vote for one policy they believe is wrong in order to win passage of another matter they support. Connecting unrelated issues grants extra power to those most effective at manipulating the system and dilutes voices of opposition to bad ideas.
This suspension of impact fees is particularly egregious because while proposals had been discussed at the state Capitol for a couple of months, no legislative bill ever was written. The actual language became public only shortly before lawmakers moved to adopt a budget last week.
The home-building industry and a few sponsoring lawmakers might understand exactly how this suspension should work. But the rest of us have had almost no time to study the details. That’s just wrong.
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QCVillager
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Posted: Fri Jun 12th, 2009 02:48 am |
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You are strongly urged to contact Queen Creek's legislative leadership and the Governor to express your opinions on this important issue:
Governor Jan Brewer
(602) 542-4331
Senator Bob Burns, Senate President
(602) 926-5993
rburns@azleg.gov
Representative Kirk Adams,
Speaker of the House
(602) 926-5495
kadams@azleg.gov
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QCVillager
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Posted: Thu Jun 11th, 2009 04:42 pm |
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2009/06/11/20090611thur1-11.html
June 11, 2009 |
Opinions
- GOP legislators playing a game of hide the taxes
- Jun. 11, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
To erect a proper state budget, a facade must first come down.
The fakery to be dismantled is Republican majority legislators' claim that they oppose any sort of tax increase to help balance the state budget, which is now $3 billion to $4 billion in the red for 2010. This claim is demonstrably false.
At least three times now, the GOP has served up proposals that would create an absolute need for Arizona cities and towns to raise taxes. And two of them are in the majority party's current budget plan.
The Republicans believe this dodge creates some sort of plausible deniability about the purity of their anti-tax virtue. Well, voters should not be deceived. It's a ruse. There are no tax virgins left in this town.
In May, GOP lawmakers considered a budget-balancing plan that included "sweeping" Arizona's cities and towns of $210 million they had collected in "impact fees" - charges assessed by cities against new development that is used to pay for the costs of new infrastructure.
That notion was quickly shot down and exposed for what it was: a backdoor tax hike. Virtually every Arizona city and town that has experienced rapid growth in recent years has taken on millions in bonded indebtedness to pay for the sewers, roads and parks that come with growth.
Without those funds, collected from new residents, the only way cities could keep current with bond payments would have been by raising local taxes. Thanks, legislative Republicans.
The current GOP proposal, passed early this month, also attempts to shear cities of impact-fee revenue. Prompted by the still-powerful home-building lobby, the Republicans wish to enact a three-year moratorium on impact-fee collections, ostensibly to kick-start new-home construction.
Let's ignore the odd spectacle of Arizona Republicans channeling Capitol Hill Democrats in picking industrial winners and losers. The important thing is that GOP lawmakers are demonstrating - again - their lust to force cities into hiking taxes on established residents. Even Arizona Republic columnist Robert Robb, an anti-tax hawk, has chastised the Legislature for this money grab.
The Republicans have not stopped with impact fees. The GOP proposal includes a "sweep" of revenue it is required to share with cities, including about $95 million from vehicle-license taxes. More lost revenue. More pressure to raise local taxes.
Sanctimonious bashers of Republican Gov. [url=http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2009/06/11/20090611thur1-11.html#]Jan Brewer, like Lake Havasu's Sen. Ron Gould, need a long look in the mirror.
The Legislature's "Goulds" are not opposed to raising taxes. They're just looking for someone else to pay the bills.
Let no one be fooled. There's Gould in those bills.
Last edited on Thu Jun 11th, 2009 04:44 pm by
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