Arizona Senate Passes Bill that Would Require a Two-Thirds Majority for County Supervisors, City and Town Councils to Raise Taxes

The State Senate passed a bill on Monday sponsored by Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Mesa) that will require a two-thirds majority for county supervisors, city and town councils to raise taxes. SB 1013, which passed 17-12 down party lines, also requires the same majority to increase assessments and fees, and preempts further regulation by municipalities and counties due to it being a matter of statewide concern.

In a video released on X, Warren said, “I’ve heard from many of you that you have been concerned about how much taxes, water bills and fees have been going up at your local government, your city or your county.” He also released a statement which further explained his reasoning for bringing the bill. “I’ve received a number of concerns and complaints from Arizonans who are frustrated with recent hikes on taxes and fees, especially in this era of inflation,” he said. “We want government to be more efficient with taxpayer dollars, and this is a step in the right direction.”

“This commonsense taxpayer protection requires the same threshold from local governments as the Legislature when raising or imposing fees. We want to make sure government fully funds its obligations, but we also want to protect our citizens from unnecessary taxation,” he added.

Fountain Hills Town Councilman Allen Skillicorn submitted his support for the bill at the state legislature. He told The Arizona Sun Times, “Tax hikes hurt good people. Corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, I call them corruptocrats, always want more of your money. We need to start helping the people instead.”

State Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who chairs the Senate Committee on Director Nominations, criticized the bill during a Senate Government Committee hearing. “Just to be very clear, local government is the legislature, okay, the legislature is local government,” he said. “Cities and counties are political subdivisions of the state, school districts, okay? Everything below the legislature, they’re political subdivisions to say they exist because we all allow them to exist, because our statutes and/or our constitution allowed them to exist. So when we talk about local control, what we actually are talking about is the House and the Senate that is the proper place for local control.”

Hoffman said the lobbyists for lower levels of government claiming that they will lose $200 million aren’t revealing the whole picture. “That represents a fraction of a fraction of 1 percent of their budgets,” he said. He listed off how big the annual budgets are for some of the cities, such as $2.13 million for Phoenix and $2.56 million for Mesa, and so $200 million from all Arizona cities combined is miniscule.

He said the same fear mongering was implemented when the legislature did away with the rental tax. “They threatened to cut public safety because of a fraction of a fraction of 1 percent! he exclaimed.

If the governor vetoes the bill, Hoffman pledged, “We will refer it to the ballot because protecting the people and protecting them from the hellscape that we’re watching unfold in Los Angeles County right now, where they’re paying $60- $70,000 in property taxes. They’re paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in combined taxes, and yet there’s no water in the fire hydrants.”

Greg Blackie, the Director of Policy for the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, issued a statement commending the passage. “For over three decades, Arizona voters and their elected officials in the state legislature have expressed their strong preference to keep taxes and fees as low as possible,” he said. “With Proposition 108 and Proposition 132, voters have time and again voted to prevent the state and themselves from raising taxes or fees without a supermajority in support. Despite this, many counties, cities, and towns continue to extract taxes and fees from citizens through edicts by faceless bureaucrats. Thankfully, legislators realize the importance of protecting the financial interests of the men, women, and children they represent by applying to the same standard to all jurisdictions.”

Blackie said in response to accusations from critics that the bill will cut funding for those governments, “[T]hese jurisdictions are flush with increasing financial revenues. Just this past year, cities alone have benefited from $315 million of new revenue from the collection of online sales tax.”

Arizona already has similar laws in place. Proposition 108 was passed in 1992, which prevents the legislature from increasing taxes without a two-thirds majority. Proposition 132 passed in 2022 and requires 60 percent approval of any tax increase on the ballot.

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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen” by AZGOP.