Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers endorsed Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen for attorney general Tuesday. The endorsement adds another Republican state attorney general to the growing coalition supporting Petersen’s challenge to Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes.
Petersen secured the Republican nomination after defeating attorney Rodney Glassman in Arizona’s primary. He will face Mayes in the Nov. 3 general election.
“Arizona needs an Attorney General who is committed to the rule of law and standing with law enforcement,” Hilgers said in a statement released by Petersen’s campaign. “Unfortunately, Arizona’s liberal Attorney General has sold out to radical special interests.”
Hilgers cited Petersen’s record as Senate president, including his work on legislation affecting families, women’s sports, public safety, and the cost of living.
“I’m supporting Warren Petersen because he is a proven, experienced leader who has fought to protect families and women’s sports as Arizona’s Senate President, lower the cost of living, and keep our neighborhoods safe,” Hilgers said. “He’s the right person with the best temperament for the job. Please join me in supporting Warren Petersen for Arizona Attorney General.”
Hilgers became Nebraska’s 33rd attorney general in 2022 after spending six years in the Nebraska Legislature, including two years as speaker. He previously practiced law for more than 15 years and founded a litigation firm.
Petersen thanked Hilgers for the endorsement and said he expected to work alongside him if elected.
“I’m grateful for the trust and support of Attorney General Hilgers,” Petersen said. “He knows that Arizona cannot afford another four years of the radical leadership and politics imported to the Attorney General’s Office by Kris Mayes.”
Petersen accused Mayes of using the office to target law enforcement and political opponents.
“Under her direction, Arizona has succumbed to the California and New York-style tactics of attacking law enforcement and persecuting political opponents,” Petersen said. “Arizonans deserve better; the hard-working men and women of this state want an Attorney General who fights for their interests, not special interests. I look forward to joining General Hilgers come January.”
Petersen has served in the Arizona Legislature since 2012 and represents Legislative District 14, which covers Gilbert and portions of Queen Creek. His legislative roles have included House majority leader, chairman of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees and president of the Senate.
Hilgers joins Utah Attorney General Derek Brown, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita among the Republican attorneys general supporting Petersen.
Petersen has also received endorsements from the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police, Arizona Police Association, Arizona State Troopers Association, Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Arizona, and Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association.
The Arizona Fraternal Order of Police represents more than 9,000 law enforcement professionals across the state, while the Arizona Police Association describes itself as a statewide coalition representing law enforcement, corrections, detention, and probation officers.
Other law enforcement endorsements announced by the campaign include Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes, Pinal County Sheriff Ross Teeple, Gila County Attorney Brad Beauchamp, Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller, Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and retired Border Patrol agent Art Del Cueto.
The campaign said Petersen is the first challenger to a sitting Arizona attorney general to receive endorsements from the state’s five largest police organizations. That claim could not be independently confirmed through publicly available historical endorsement records.
Petersen has made law enforcement support and criticism of Mayes central themes of his campaign. His campaign website lists enforcing existing laws, supporting law enforcement, and restoring trust in the Attorney General’s Office among his stated priorities.
Rep. Eli Crane’s (R-AZ02) legislation to expedite reconstruction at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim received its first Senate hearing last week week as the Department of the Interior endorsed the House-passed measure and requested expanded small-contract authority.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks considered H.R. 5729, the North Rim Restoration Act, during a legislative hearing on Tuesday. Crane introduced the bill last October after the Dragon Bravo Fire damaged the North Rim and destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge.
“Last July, the Dragon Bravo Fire dealt a serious setback to Northern Arizona, inflicting harm on park staff, gateway communities, and local businesses,” Crane said. “In response, I’m grateful to have collaborated with key stakeholders on a federal response that will help rebuild this iconic destination.”
Crane thanked Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) for placing the bill before the panel and said he hoped Congress would complete work on the measure.
In a post to X, Crane wrote, “This marked the first significant Senate action on the bill since it unanimously passed the House in March. I’m hopeful we can get this across the finish line.”
On Tuesday, @EnergyGOP held a legislative hearing on the North Rim Restoration Act of 2025.
This marked the first significant Senate action on the bill since it unanimously passed the House in March.
The legislation would allow the National Park Service to use emergency acquisition procedures without requiring a presidential emergency or disaster declaration. Those procedures include increased micro-purchase thresholds, simplified acquisition thresholds and other contracting flexibilities under federal acquisition regulations.
The authority would cover forest management and restoration, planning and reconstruction of damaged structures, improvements to park grounds and other recovery work within areas of Grand Canyon National Park affected by the Dragon Bravo Fire.
The House-passed version would also permit the Interior Secretary to award limited noncompetitive recovery contracts to the concessioner operating at the North Rim. The secretary would first have to determine in writing that the concessioner is uniquely positioned to perform the work and that noncompetitive procurement is necessary for public safety, resource protection, or continuity of essential services.
Eligible projects would include employee housing, water and wastewater systems, power and communications infrastructure, lodging, food service, retail operations, transportation facilities, and maintenance buildings. The bill states that recovery contracts would remain separate from the concessioner’s existing agreement and would not extend or amend that concession contract.
The emergency authority would expire seven years after enactment or when the Interior Secretary determines that recovery work is complete. The National Park Service would have to report to four congressional committees every 180 days after it begins using the authority.
The reports would identify anticipated and actual costs, overruns, contractors, possible conflicts of interest, detected waste or fraud, projects completed below expected cost, and estimated completion dates.
Charles Cuvelier, associate director for visitor and resource protection at the National Park Service, told senators that the Interior Department supports the bill.
“This authority will enable the agency to move more efficiently on time-sensitive repair and reconstruction activities,” Cuvelier said in his written testimony.
Cuvelier said North Rim recovery requires coordination across damaged utilities, employee housing, and visitor facilities. The department asked the subcommittee to consider temporarily increasing several additional small-dollar procurement thresholds so the Park Service could issue minor construction and service contracts more efficiently.
The House passed H.R. 5729 on March 16 with no member objecting. The bill’s House cosponsors include Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ05), Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ06), Paul Gosar (R-AZ09), and Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ08), along with Reps. Celeste Maloy (R-UT02) and Tom Tiffany (R-WI07).
The Senate panel also considered S. 3785, the North Rim and Kaibab National Forest Restoration Act, introduced in February by Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego with Sen. Mark Kelly as an original cosponsor.
That proposal would extend similar emergency contracting authority to both the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service for areas affected by the Dragon Bravo and White Sage fires. It would cover Grand Canyon National Park and the Kaibab National Forest, require tribal and local participation in recovery planning, and direct federal officials to prioritize tribal and local businesses when practicable. Its authority would last five years or until recovery is complete.
The lightning-caused Dragon Bravo Fire began July 4, 2025, and burned 149,399 acres across the Kaibab Plateau, including 71,129 acres managed by Grand Canyon National Park. The fire destroyed 114 buildings and outbuildings, including the Grand Canyon Lodge, 80 guest cabins, and 24 buildings in the National Park Service headquarters historic district.
The National Park Service reopened the North Rim for the 2026 season in May. All paved park roads and the full North Kaibab Trail reopened, with the trail open to foot traffic, and the North Rim Campground reopened June 1. Overnight lodging remains unavailable on the North Rim while reconstruction continues.
H.R. 5729 remains before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The committee would have to advance the legislation before it could receive a vote by the full Senate.
“With this week’s activity in the Senate, we are getting closer to delivering much-needed relief to those impacted by this destructive fire,” Crane said.
Six Phoenix-area hospitals received federal warning notices or requests for corrective action plans over compliance with hospital price transparency requirements, according to a report released by the health care watchdog group Hospital Watch.
The facilities named were Banner Gateway Medical Center, BH Newco Hospital LLC, College Medical Center Phoenix, Phoenix Specialty Hospital, Quail Run Behavioral Health, and Valley Hospital.
BH Newco Hospital operates as Via Linda Behavioral Hospital in Scottsdale. Banner Gateway Medical Center is located in Gilbert, while the remaining facilities serve patients in Phoenix.
The six Arizona facilities were among 519 hospitals nationwide that received letters from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) between April and early June, according to a national list obtained by the Associated Press.
The list included hospitals in every state except Alaska. Texas had the most facilities receiving letters with 42, followed by California with 38, and Indiana with 34.
The letters included warning notices and, in cases CMS considered more serious, requests for hospitals to submit formal corrective action plans. Hospitals that fail to address cited deficiencies can face civil monetary penalties that may reach approximately $2 million annually, depending on the size of the facility.
“Patients should not have to guess what a hospital visit is going to cost,” Hospital Watch spokesman Adam Buckalew said. “If hospitals are serious about affordability, they should start by following the basic transparency rules already on the books. Instead, too many major hospital systems are hiding prices, protecting inflated rates, and leaving families to deal with surprise bills they cannot afford.”
TODAY: @HouseCommerce is looking for solutions to increase price transparency across the healthcare industry. Any honest conversation about healthcare affordability must look at the #1 culprit preventing it: corporate hospital systems.
Federal hospital price transparency rules have been enforced since Jan. 1, 2021. Most hospitals are required to publish a comprehensive machine-readable file containing their gross charges, discounted cash prices, rates negotiated with individual insurers, and the highest and lowest negotiated prices for each service.
Hospitals must also provide a consumer-friendly display covering at least 300 services that patients can schedule in advance, or all such services if the hospital offers fewer than 300. The display must include plain-language descriptions and pricing information or be provided through an online cost-estimator tool.
CMS can issue a warning, require a corrective action plan, impose a civil monetary penalty, and publicly identify hospitals that remain out of compliance.
The public list of hospitals receiving letters does not by itself disclose the specific deficiency identified at each Phoenix-area facility or establish whether the issue has since been corrected. Hospitals elsewhere on the list have said their notices involved technical or formatting problems rather than missing price information.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, for example, told the Associated Press that its notice concerned a date-field formatting issue that was corrected. Ascension said letters sent to several of its hospitals involved a minor technical error. CMS later accepted corrected documentation from some facilities.
A 2024 audit by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found that 37 of 100 sampled hospitals failed to meet one or more federal transparency requirements. The office estimated that 46 percent of the 5,879 hospitals covered by the rule were not fully compliant at the time of the audit.
Hospital Watch said inaccessible or incomplete pricing information prevents patients, employers, and families from comparing costs before receiving care. The organization also called for greater federal enforcement and additional scrutiny of hospital consolidation in the Phoenix market.
“The hospital market in the Phoenix area is dominated by a handful of powerful systems,” Buckalew added. “When hospitals buy up competitors and face little real competition, patients lose. Prices go up, premiums rise, and families are left with medical bills they cannot afford.”
A January report from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) identified Banner Health as the state’s largest hospital system with 18 hospitals, followed by Dignity Health and HonorHealth. AHCCCS listed Abrazo/Tenet among 11 hospital systems operating at least three facilities in Arizona.
Hospital Watch said private insurers and patients frequently pay hospitals approximately three times the rates paid by Medicare.
A nationwide RAND Corporation study found that employers and private insurers paid hospitals an average of 254 percent of Medicare rates for comparable services at the same facilities in 2022. Inpatient facility prices averaged 254 percent of Medicare rates, while outpatient hospital facility prices averaged 279 percent.
Hospital industry representatives have argued that commercial payments help cover costs that Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates do not fully address. The American Hospital Association has also said most hospitals comply with federal requirements and has called for clearer, more standardized rules that produce information patients can readily use.
“We need real enforcement of hospital price transparency and stronger scrutiny of hospital consolidation,” Buckalew said. “Sunlight is the first step toward accountability. Patients and employers deserve to know what they are being charged, why prices are so high, and whether hospitals are giving them a fair deal.”
Hospital Watch launched in February as a project of Better Solutions for Healthcare. The group advocates for hospital price transparency, limits on facility fees and markups, and increased oversight of hospital consolidation.
Arizona Republicans selected their nominees for several of the state’s highest-profile offices on Tuesday, with several races called later in the evening. Additional ballot counting continued Wednesday in closely divided legislative, congressional, and county races.
The Associated Press called Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ05) the winner of the four-way Republican primary for governor, setting up a November contest against Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs. The AP also called the Republican secretary of state primary for state Rep. Alexander Kolodin.
The attorney general primary race was subsequently called for State Senate President Warren Petersen shortly before midnight in Arizona. Petersen led attorney Rodney Glassman by 56.4 percent to 43.6 percent as of publication.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Warren Petersen wins Republican nomination for attorney general in Arizona. #APRaceCall at 2:58 a.m. EDT. https://t.co/TS3eIpQI5W
Republican Elijah Norton defeated Katherine Haley for the state treasurer nomination, leading 56.1 percent to 43.9 percent at the time of publication. Norton will now face Democrat nominee Nick Mansour.
Decision Desk HQ called State Treasurer Kimberly Yee the winner of the Republican primary for superintendent of public instruction. Yee led incumbent Superintendent Tom Horne 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent with approximately 89 percent of the expected vote counted in the highly competitive race. Former state lawmaker, Democrat Teresa Leyba Ruiz, had nearly 80 percent of the vote against Brett Newby and will advance to the general election.
Decision Desk HQ projects Kimberly Yee wins the AZ Superintendent of Public Instruction Republican Primary#DecisionMade: 8:18 AM EDT pic.twitter.com/hCr78WcgTt
Commissioner Kevin Thompson secured one Republican nomination for the Arizona Corporation Commission, while former lawmaker Ralph Heap appeared set to secure the second after Commissioner Nick Myers conceded the race in a statement posted to X. Thompson led with 291,934 votes, or 35.89 percent. Heap followed with 267,085 votes, or 32.84 percent, while Myers had 254,321 votes, or 31.27 percent, leaving Heap ahead by 12,764 votes at the time of publication.
Congressional Primaries
Former state Rep. Amish Shah has won the Democratic nomination for U.S. House in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District against former television journalist Marlene Galán-Woods, 39.8 percent to 34.1 percent, according to the AP. Jonathan Treble held 17.62 percent, and Rick McCartney had 8.51 percent. Shah will face Thomas “Jay” Feely in one of Arizona’s most competitive congressional districts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Amish Shah wins Democratic nomination for U.S. House in Arizona's 1st Congressional District. #APRaceCall at 10:07 p.m. EDT. https://t.co/TS3eIpQI5W
Rep. Greg Stanton held a commanding lead over progressive challenger Kai Newkirk in the Democratic primary for the Fourth Congressional District, 63.5 percent to 36.5 percent.
Former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb won the Republican primary for Biggs’ open Fifth Congressional District seat, defeating Daniel Keenan 58.3 percent to 41.7 percent. The Associated Press also called the Democrat primary for Elizabeth Lee, who received 65.5 percent. Chris James received 21.2 percent, and Brian Hualde received 13.28 percent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elizabeth Lee wins Democratic nomination for U.S. House in Arizona's 5th Congressional District. #APRaceCall at 11:18 p.m. EDT. https://t.co/TS3eIpQI5W
Bernadette Greene-Placentia defeated Raymond Keeler approximately 65 percent to 35 percent in the Democratic primary for the Eighth Congressional District. She will challenge Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh in November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernadette Greene-Placentia wins Democratic nomination for U.S. House in Arizona's 8th Congressional District. #APRaceCall at 11:20 p.m. EDT. https://t.co/TS3eIpQI5W
Republicans currently hold narrow majorities in both chambers of the Arizona Legislature, giving several down-ballot primaries consequences extending well beyond the individual districts.
In Legislative District 2, Republican Sen. Shawnna Bolick led Timothy Ferrara 71.4 percent to 28.6 percent. Democrat Amelia Gallitano led Daniel Toporek 77.3 percent to 22.7 percent in the same district.
Republican Sen. John Kavanagh led Robert Wallace 85.2 percent to 14.8 percent in Legislative District 3.
In the Democratic primary for Legislative District 6, former Sen. Jamescita Peshlakai led Rep. Myron Tsosie 54.8 percent to 45.2 percent.
Sen. Lauren Kuby, a former Tempe city councilwoman, led Deborah Nardozzi 76 percent to 24 percent in the Legislative District 8 Democratic primary.
Christopher King led Anthony Dunham 63.2 percent to 36.8 percent in the Republican primary for Legislative District 17.
Rep. Alma Hernandez led Rocque Perez 53.8 percent to 46.2 percent in the Democratic primary for Legislative District 20.
The closest contested Senate primary was in Legislative District 27, where Republican Sen. Kevin Payne led former Sen. Anthony Kern with 8,368 votes to 8,096, a margin of only 272 votes.
State House Primaries
Arizona House districts elect two representatives, meaning the two leading candidates in each party primary generally advance to November.
In Legislative District 1, Republican Reps. Selina Bliss and Quang Nguyen held the two qualifying positions. Bliss led with 42.45 percent, Nguyen followed with 42.04 percent, and Shawn Wildman trailed with 15.51 percent.
George Khalaf led the four-candidate Republican contest in Legislative District 3 with 33.69 percent. Cody Reim held the second nomination position with 27.12 percent, only 612 votes ahead of Jay Schlum, who received 26.21 percent. Thomas Walsh held 12.8 percent.
Republican Rep. Matt Gress led Legislative District 4 with 45.28 percent, while Pamela Carter held the second position with 33.67 percent. Sandra Christensen trailed with 21.05 percent.
In Legislative District 6, Democratic Rep. Mae Peshlakai led with 42.5 percent. Ian Teller held the second qualifying position with 29.76 percent, followed by Angela Maloney with 27.73 percent.
Rep. Walt Blackman led the Legislative District 7 Republican primary with 34.73 percent. Rep. David Cook held second with 27.25 percent, followed by Andrew Costanzo with 21.34 percent and Barby Ingle with 16.67 percent.
Brian Garcia and Janeen Connolly held the two Democratic nomination positions in Legislative District 8 with 42 percent and 32 percent, respectively. Claudia Kline trailed with 26 percent.
Rep. Justin Olson, a former corporation commissioner, led the Republican primary in Legislative District 10 with 43.82 percent. James Rogers held second with 34.41 percent, followed by Ciara Anderson with 21.77 percent.
Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke led the Legislative District 13 Republican primary with 43.31 percent. Janet Weninger held the second nomination position with 34.62 percent, while Debra Schinke trailed with 22.07 percent.
In Legislative District 14, Tyler Farnsworth led with 41.63 percent, and Rep. Laurin Hendrix followed with 38.29 percent. Jed Lyons received 20.08 percent.
Sen. David Gowan, a former Senate president, led the Legislative District 19 Republican House primary with 43.98 percent. Rep. Lupe Diaz held the second position with 32.09 percent, followed by Cheryl Caswell with 23.93 percent.
On the Democrat side, Rep. Sally Ann Gonzales led the Legislative District 20 House primary with 33.37 percent. Rep. Betty Villegas, a former Pima County supervisor, held second with 31.81 percent, followed by Genoveva Diaz with 19.41 percent and Ben Koehler with 15.42 percent.
Rep. Consuelo Hernandez led the four-way Democrat primary in Legislative District 21 with 30.21 percent. Miranda Lopez held the second nomination position with 24.92 percent, ahead of Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton at 24.24 percent. Maritza Higuera held 20.63 percent.
Rep. Elda Luna-Nájera led the five-candidate Democratic primary in Legislative District 22 with 29.36 percent. Betsy Munoz held second with 27.60 percent, followed by Veronica Bejarano-Malone with 24.78 percent, Steve Chapman with 9.86 percent, and Gwen Johnston with 8.4 percent.
Rep. Mariana Sandoval led the Legislative District 23 Democratic primary with 38.35 percent. Emilia Cortez held the second nomination position with 25.49 percent, followed by Juan Manuel Guerrero at 18.3 percent and Naomi Miguel at 18.19 percent.
In Legislative District 24, Alberto Flores and Lisbeth Arescurenaga held the two qualifying positions with 39.87 percent and 37.02 percent. Democratic Rep. Lydia Hernandez trailed with 14.34 percent, followed by Rosa Cantu with 8.77 percent.
Republican Reps. Beverly Pingerelli and David Livingston led the Legislative District 28 contest with 41.72 percent and 38.98 percent, respectively. Heather Rooks received 19.30 percent.
Mike Gannuscio led the five-candidate Republican primary in Legislative District 30 with 33.97 percent. David Rose held the second nomination position with 29.16 percent, followed by Grace Hecht with 19.89 percent, Catherine Lopez-Rajaniemi with 10.68 percent, and Caroline Strecker with 6.29 percent.
County Races
Most countywide offices on Tuesday’s ballot had only one candidate seeking each party’s nomination. Contested county and local races included the Apache County clerk of the Superior Court primary, the Santa Cruz County school superintendent primary, the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors District 2 primary, and the Yuma County clerk of the Superior Court primary.
In Apache County, Samceita Begay led Wendy Shepherd in the Democratic primary for clerk of the Superior Court. Begay received 5,653 votes to Shepherd’s 4,195 at the time of publication.
In Santa Cruz County, incumbent County School Superintendent Maya Donnelly led Sonia Sanchez by 2,545 votes to 2,222 in the Democratic primary. Miguel López also led Adriana Olaiz by 2,754 votes to 2,066 in the Democratic primary for justice of the peace at the time of publication.
Camp Verde Mayor Marie Moore led Wiley Cline in the Republican primary for the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors District 2 seat. Moore received 3,633 votes, approximately 57 percent, while Cline received 2,746 votes or approximately 43 percent.
In Yuma County, Chief Deputy Clerk Bobbie Jo Daily led Malba Alvarez by 6,801 votes to 2,530, or 72.9 percent to 27.1 percent, in the Republican primary for clerk of the Superior Court. The Arizona Secretary of State’s county-results portal continued to list Yuma County’s results as pending Wednesday afternoon, although the county had opened its separate online results system.
Additional Ballots Remain
The results remained unofficial on Wednesday as county election officials continued processing ballots. The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office estimated that voters deposited 93,368 early ballots at polling locations on Election Day. That figure represents Election Day ballot drop-offs and does not represent the number of ballots remaining to be counted. The Secretary of State’s Office reports outstanding ballots separately through its ballot-progress reports.
The early results demonstrated President Donald Trump’s continued influence in Arizona’s Republican statewide and congressional primaries. The legislative contests followed a more localized pattern, with incumbency, district organizations, and candidate-specific disputes producing several close races beneath a decisive statewide result.
Margins of only a few hundred votes in several legislative primaries could shape the composition of Arizona’s Republican and Democrat legislative caucuses as the parties prepare for the larger fight over control of the House and Senate in November. The statewide canvass is scheduled for Aug. 6.
Vote totals and percentages are current as of 8 p.m. MST on July 22.
Yavapai County officials are proposing 2.9 percent increases in the county’s primary property tax levy and the Yavapai County Free Library District’s secondary property tax levy as part of the fiscal year 2027 budget process.
The two proposed increases would generate a combined $2.1 million beyond the prior year’s levies, excluding revenue from new construction. The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on the proposals at 9 a.m. on July 27, concurrently with the county budget hearing.
The county is proposing a $1,942,974 increase in primary property taxes over the prior year’s level, excluding taxes generated by new construction.
Under the county’s example, the primary property tax on a home valued at $100,000 would be $164.43 under the proposal. The tax would have been $159.84 without the increase, a difference of $4.59.
The Yavapai County Free Library District is separately proposing a $160,856 increase in secondary property taxes, also representing a 2.9 percent increase over the previous year’s level.
The library district’s secondary property tax on a $100,000 home would rise from $13.08 to $13.46, an increase of 38 cents.
Under the two notices’ examples, the county and library district taxes on a $100,000 home would total $177.89, which is $4.97 more than the $172.92 that would be owed without the proposed levy increases.
The proposed increases do not include additional tax revenue generated by new construction. The county’s calculation also excludes changes associated with voter-approved bonds, budget overrides, and other property tax levies, while the library district’s calculation excludes voter-approved bonded indebtedness.
Including revenue attributable to new construction, the county’s tentative fiscal year 2027 budget lists a total primary property tax levy of approximately $69.6 million, up from $66.2 million in fiscal year 2026. The Free Library District’s total secondary levy would increase from approximately $5.42 million to $5.7 million.
The proposed county primary property tax rate would remain at $1.6443 per $100 of net assessed valuation. The Free Library District rate would also remain unchanged at 13.46 cents per $100 of net assessed valuation.
The levies can increase while the rates remain unchanged because the taxable value of property within the county has grown. Arizona’s truth-in-taxation laws compare the proposed levy on existing property with the prior year’s levy after excluding the amount attributable to new construction.
Under Arizona Revised Statutes §42-17107, counties must publish a notice and hold a public hearing when a proposed primary property tax levy on existing property exceeds the previous year’s amount. The governing body must consider the increase through a roll-call vote.
A similar requirement applies to county free library districts under Arizona Revised Statutes §48-254. The statute requires the library district’s truth-in-taxation hearing to be held concurrently with the county’s budget adoption proceedings.
The county’s tentative budget lists approximately $491.3 million in expenditures across all funds for fiscal year 2027, compared with an adopted or adjusted fiscal year 2026 budget of approximately $424.4 million. The proposed budget includes $185.2 million in general fund expenditures and $301.8 million in special revenue fund expenditures.
The hearing will be held in the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room at 1015 Fair Street in Prescott, with a second location available at 10 S. Sixth Street in Cottonwood.
