Arizona Republicans again got the better of Governor Katie Hobbs with their second installment of a state budget amid a tenuous divided government.
On Saturday night, the Republican-led Arizona Legislature passed the 2024-2025 state budget and adjourned for the year after finishing its tasks. This latest budget was negotiated between Senate President Warren Petersen, House Speaker Ben Toma, and Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs.
“Following last year’s state budget, where Republican lawmakers provided inflationary relief to everyday Arizonans through $274 million in tax rebates distributed to struggling families, as well as a ban on the tenant-paid rental tax taking effect this January, Republicans are again successfully supporting our hardworking citizens while simultaneously reining in spending,” said Senate President Warren Petersen. “In this year’s budget, we defended more than $520 million allocated last year for much-needed transportation projects statewide. We also cut fees for Maricopa County drivers on emissions testing by 5%, and we banned fee increases on Arizonans from state boards for the next two years.”
🚨FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Republicans Eliminate Deficit, Increase Border Security Spending, Fully Fund Public Safety, Protect School Choice, Shrink Government in 2024-2025 State Budget
House Speaker Ben Toma added, “At a time when Arizonans are having to tighten their financial belts, so is state government. The Arizona House of Representatives has passed a fiscally conservative, structurally balanced state budget that solves the nearly $1.5 billion deficit, without touching the rainy-day fund or using budget gimmickry. The budget trims government and protects conservative priorities. It increases funding for local border support operations and assists fentanyl interdiction efforts by law enforcement. It funds transportation and infrastructure and maintains our state’s commitment to water security.”
✅House Approves Fiscally Conservative State Budget that Trims Government and Protects School Choice
“At a time when Arizonans are having to tighten their financial belts, so is state government. The Arizona House of Representatives has passed a fiscally conservative,… pic.twitter.com/yJRtoKAZqb
— Arizona House Republicans (@AZHouseGOP) June 16, 2024
According to a press release from the Arizona Senate Republicans Caucus, some of the highlights from the agreed-upon budget included the following:
Reduction of state spending by $1.7 billion below the 2023-2024 budget (10%);
Reduction of ongoing spending by $330 million; and
Addition of $5 million for local border security support and $4 million for fentanyl interdiction and law enforcement response.
The Senate Republicans also noted that their efforts this year produced a budget that did not add any new taxes, tax increases, or debt. Additionally, the budget did not pull dollars from the rainy-day fund, ensuring that the state would have sufficient funds to draw upon should it experience more stormy weather in future years.
“We tightened the state’s belt by trimming fat from state agencies, and we reallocated unspent tax dollars to the general fund to eliminate the deficit, without irresponsibly tapping into our rainy-day fund,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman John Kavanagh. “Most government operations within the state received a healthy and manageable 3.5% reduction in spending, with a few exceptions. Safe communities free of crime and a secure border are the biggest priorities to Arizonans and Republicans alike, and we want to ensure our budget reflects that. As a result, funding for the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Corrections, and the Arizona Auditor General remains intact, while we’re also investing millions in border security, all without raising taxes or creating new debt.”
“Our budget also reflects our support for our citizens’ Second Amendment rights,” said Senator David Gowan, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, Public Safety & Border Security. “We’re funding two full time positions at the Department of Public Safety to address a backlog of concealed carry permit applications and renewals, with a requirement to prioritize Arizona residents first. This move can have a positive impact in our state by ultimately strengthening the safety and security of our communities as our citizens seek avenues to protect themselves, their families, and their private property. Additionally in this budget, we’re infusing crucial dollars into the Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) located in our rural communities, so these residents have convenient access to emergency care.”
Not every Republican was on board with this budget, however. State Representative Matt Gress explained his “no” vote on the most-recent edition, writing, “This year’s [budget] seems more focused on just ‘getting it done’ than ‘doing it right.’ There’s a reason there is bipartisan opposition. This is not a budget that reflects the shared priorities of Arizonans.”
Gress’ fellow Republican colleague in the chamber, Representative Jacqueline Parker, opined, “Literally the ONLY ones saying good things about this budget are Democrats…”
Literally the ONLY ones saying good things about this budget are Democrats… 🤔 pic.twitter.com/NIW1tSc4KF
— Rep. Jacqueline Parker (@electjacqparker) June 16, 2024
Senator Wendy Rogers weighed in after the vote in her chamber, posting, “This was a solid Republican budget and I voted for it.”
State Representative John Gillette agreed with Rogers’ sentiments, saying, “After a hard fight and two days of voting, we finally passed the 2024-2025 budget with tax cuts and NO new debt. Fiscal responsibility and conservative values prevailed.”
After a hard fight and two days of voting, we finally passed the 2024-2025 budget with tax cuts and NO new debt!
Fiscal responsibility and conservative values prevailed.
Republicans will now have to make the case to Arizona voters in the all-important November General Election about why they should return to power in the state legislature for another two years in a divided government with Governor Hobbs. Throughout the past two years, Republicans have been mostly united and focused on protecting several of their priorities from the clutches of Democrats eager to dismantle values and principles. That balance of power, though, hangs on a knife’s edge as fall awaits.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
For the second year in a row, Republicans protected the state’s historic school choice program from Democrats seeking to regulate or end it.
This past weekend, the Arizona legislature passed the 2024-2025 state budget, adjourning for the session.
House Speaker Ben Toma, who was instrumental in the negotiations and approval of the budget, addressed his caucus’ defense of the Empowerment Scholarship Account program, writing, “I’m most proud of the fact that this budget fully protects the state’s universal Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program which provides educational freedom for Arizona families. Democrats have long vowed to dismantle the program. As the sponsor of the universal expansion of ESAs, I was never going to let that happen. Eligibility for the program is unchanged and we have included several smart, commonsense reforms that improve this popular school choice program and increases accountability.”
✅House Approves Fiscally Conservative State Budget that Trims Government and Protects School Choice
“At a time when Arizonans are having to tighten their financial belts, so is state government. The Arizona House of Representatives has passed a fiscally conservative,… pic.twitter.com/yJRtoKAZqb
— Arizona House Republicans (@AZHouseGOP) June 16, 2024
“What’s not included in the $16.1 billion budget is an elimination of the historic Universal Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program or our School Tuition Organizations program providing tens of thousands of Arizona families the freedom to pick the best schools to meet their children’s unique learning needs,” said Majority Whip Sine Kerr. “We are continuing our commitment to providing every family in the state of Arizona with a quality education, no matter their zip code or economic status. Additionally, we said ‘no’ when Governor Hobbs and Democrats proposed eliminating our Arizona Freedom Schools at our public universities, which are dedicated to civics education and ensuring students are equipped down the road to lead our state to a brighter tomorrow.”
🚨FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Republicans Eliminate Deficit, Increase Border Security Spending, Fully Fund Public Safety, Protect School Choice, Shrink Government in 2024-2025 State Budget
Christine Accurso, one of Arizona’s foremost advocates for the ESA program, shared an update on the state of the program in the aftermath of the legislature’s action with the budget. She said, “For the second year in a row, Governor Hobbs failed to live up to her campaign promise of gutting the Empowerment Scholarship Program. ESA students will see the full funding in the program in 2024-2025 school year… The legislature prioritized parents and students over bureaucratic vendors… “
Governor Hobbs failed to gut the ESA program again!
For a detailed account of what is changing in the ESA program this year, click here to read my recent bulletin:https://t.co/boQtE9gnOp
— Christine Accurso (@ArizonaCatholic) June 16, 2024
Accurso’s comment about Hobbs harkened back to the passage of the 2023-2024 budget process, where the then-first-year governor disappointed Democrat legislators and allied interest groups with her failure to break through a Republican blockade of the ESA program on behalf of Arizona families. Hobbs spent the remainder of 2023 and a good portion of the first half of 2024 taking more overt political swipes at ESAs in, what appeared to be, an attempt to win back favor from her base.
Hobbs may have sensed a renewed crescendo of disappointment and outrage from her side after the budget was passed by the legislature. In her statement about the agreement, Hobbs said, “…I know we still have more work to do. While this bipartisan budget delivers reforms to ESAs, there are not enough. I stand committed to bringing much needed accountability and transparency to the unsustainable ESA program.”
Marisol Garcia, the President of the Arizona Education Association, issued a statement following the latest budget passage, in which she previewed the road ahead for her side as they regroup and try to win Democrat seats for a legislative majority come January. Garcia wrote, “…There’s only so much that pro-education lawmakers can do when they’re outnumbered by an extremist majority. This budget is a call to action – it’s up to us to elect a new legislature this November and start making Arizona a state that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.”
Save Our Schools Arizona also released a statement to oppose the budget and echoed the sentiments of the Arizona Education Association, stating, “Failing to touch Gov. Ducey’s unaccountable ESA voucher giveaway is an incredibly irresponsible use of taxpayer funds… This budget makes the path forward abundantly clear: No progress can be made for Arizona public schools until the balance of power is shifted at the legislature.”
Read our statement in opposition to the budget passed by the Arizona legislature: pic.twitter.com/WOCZuSut7b
A new ridesharing alternative to Uber and Lyft has emerged in several cities with Phoenix and Scottsdale on the cusp of joining the roster. Blackwolf, a new rideshare application based out of Atlanta has entered the arena to address a need not merely for ridesharing, but for a sense of security for its passengers. Presently available in Atlanta, Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale, the service boasts of drivers who are armed and CPR-trained former Law Enforcement, military, or professional security personnel. Founder Kerry KingBrown explains that creating the app came to him after “a friend who told him how she was sex trafficked,” according to the app’s website.
KingBrown, 32, is a former private investigator who worked for Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) as reported by The New York Post. Speaking with Atlanta First News the proprietor made his case for a new kind of ridesharing experience:
“Who are mostly on the news getting robbed, getting raped? The average person,” he told reporters. “What I’m creating is a necessary evil. It’s a necessity.” Speaking to NewsNation in May he said “There’s too many rapes. There’s too many people getting carjacked. There’s too many that are not vetted, There’s too many drivers who are driving the wrong vehicle.” KingBrown added, “That driver has to be vetted. That driver has to have a background. That driver has to have a proper vehicle. Normally when people want to feel safe, the price is really out of their budget.”
On the app’s Facebook page the company lays out that every vehicle is equipped with GPS tracking as well as live-streaming cameras allowing riders to share a live feed with loved ones during their trip. Both unarmed and armed drivers are available as an “Armed Executive Protection Driver” or an “Unarmed Executive Protection Driver” in the application itself. The Post reported that at present the base rate for an unarmed driver is $50 with $1.75 per mile in addition. For an armed driver, the difference is just ten dollars, bringing it to $60 with $1.75 per mile charge.
Brass tacks: here’s a comparison from Surprise, Arizona:
Uber Premium Black to Sky Harbor Airport Terminal 4 is priced at $147.31 as of this writing, upgrading to an SUV runs it up to $181.32.
Lyft Black for the same trip is priced at $125.82, with the upgrade to Black SUV at $160.12.
Following the BlackWolf formula for estimating reported by The Post, an unarmed ride would set you back $107.75 before taxes, meanwhile an armed ride would run just $117.75.
In BlackWolf’s executive summary the company states it has plans to expand its operations to Chicago and Nashville. The Post reported upcoming expansion into New York as well. The firm also painted a significant difference in the caliber of driver customers can expect. “The demand for BlackWolf underscores a growing concern for safety in traditional ride-hail services. Unlike major competitors who pretty much hire anybody who applies, BlackWolf prioritizes screening and quality, striving to ensure riders never have to worry about inappropriate driver behavior, inconsistent ride quality, or feeling unsafe,” the company said.
BlackWolf armed drivers: “Must have a minimum of 4+ years in the military, law enforcement, or security sector, must be CPR certified, and must have security credentials.” The site added, “Our pricing is very competitive with Uber Black, and it can sometimes be lower depending on the distance and time! We are for everyday Americans who want to feel safe without burning a hole in their pocketbook.” The site does clarify that as Axios reports their drivers do not provide security services at destination but only ensure safe transport noting, “customers in need of personal bodyguard security can request a licensed security driver via email. We collaborate with security companies across the country for such rides, which can then be conveniently arranged within the app as a private contract.” Recent reports from Axios and AZCentral have pointed to some hiccups in the initial June 5th launch with the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) that resulted in service in Arizona being paused, but KingBrown told Axios he is working on the issue with the hopes it will “be resolved quickly.”
“It’s a tough journey but we are here to stay and operate correctly and legally!” he told Axios in an email.
According to the outlet, ADOT spokesman Steve Elliott said that BlackWolf had submitted its application to the agency but it was incomplete. He added that the ADOT will verify that Blackwolf is ” in compliance with relevant statutes and rules” and that the application will be reviewed once it is resubmitted “with all required information.” The Department later confirmed to the Arizona Republic that the application is completed and “currently under review.”
Attorney General Kris Mayes, a pro-choice Democrat, applauded the Supreme Court’s ruling on the controversial abortion drug, mifepristone.
Mayes issued a press release on Thursday in response to the Court’s ruling that the doctors and medical groups suing to roll back the FDA’s expansion of access to mifepristone had lack of standing, or the legal right to sue. The Supreme Court ruled that the doctors and medical groups couldn’t show that they would be harmed directly by the FDA’s mifepristone policies, specifically citing past rulings in which courts were determined to not be the forums for all “general complaints about the way in which government goes about its business.”
I applaud the unanimous decision by the US Supreme Court to uphold nationwide access to the drug Mifepristone. I will never stop fighting against any attempts to restrict the rights of Arizonans to make their own healthcare decisions without interference.
— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) June 13, 2024
Although the High Court’s ruling hinged on the technicality of the plaintiffs’ identities, the attorney general depicted the ruling as supportive of mifepristone’s safety and efficacy.
“Millions of Americans have used Mifepristone safely and effectively for over two decades,” said Mayes. “By reversing the disastrous ruling by the Fifth Circuit, today’s decision will save lives and avoid widespread confusion among providers, distributors, pharmacies, and patients.”
Mayes also indicated that she would support those fights to expand abortion access. Arizona law currently restricts abortions to 15 weeks.
“I will never stop fighting against any attempts to restrict the rights of Arizonans to make their own healthcare decisions without interference from anti-abortion politicians and activists,” said Mayes.
The author of the Court’s opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, admitted that the doctors and medical groups turned away for lack of standing had “sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections” to mifepristone.
The FDA approved mifepristone over 20 years ago during the Clinton administration through a controversial fast-tracked approval process. The FDA reclassified pregnancy as a “serious or life-threatening illness,” with mifepristone therefore validated as a “meaningful therapeutic benefit.”
The Governmental Accountability Office issued a 2008 report highlighting the criticization of the FDA’s reclassification.
“Critics have argued that unwanted pregnancy should not be considered a serious or life-threatening illness,” read the report.
The FDA restrictions such as a risk evaluation mitigation strategy have faced rollback considerations on mifepristone as well.
The lawsuit at the center of this most recent Supreme Court ruling was prompted by the FDA’s announcement in 2021 that it would no longer enforce an initial in-person visit for practitioners to prescribe mifepristone.
Past court rulings and research have indicated that there have been thousands of adverse event cases from mifepristone.
The attorney general has been a vocal and repeat proponent of mifepristone.
Mayes joined an amicus brief last May advocating for the federal approval of the abortion drug. Since taking office earlier last year, Mayes encouraged major pharmacy chains to continue to offer mifepristone regardless of the ongoing or potential legal challenges.
The attorney general also launched a Reproductive Rights Unit tasked with advancing pathways for abortion, such as taking on legal challenges against medical providers and offering guidance to women on hiding their data when seeking abortion.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
Sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County, a Republican hopeful for U.S. Senate, issued a press release on Wednesday extolling the virtues of the law enforcement agencies responsible for the capture of eight terrorists tied to ISIS who had illegally entered the country and excoriating the Biden White House for its maladministration of the dangerous situation at the Southern Border.
In his release, Lamb’s office explained that the Sheriff offered his congratulations to “law enforcement at every level in the tracking and arrest of eight terrorists with ties to ISIS who had managed to cross the southern border in recent months.” As reported by The New York Post six of the ISIS-linked terrorists were Russian nationals from Tajikistan, and were arrested during coordinated raids in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia. Per NBC two additional terrorists with links to ISIS were also arrested after they were surveilled for “several months” by the Joint Terrorism Taskforce.
Lamb said in a statement, “One week after Joe Biden’s executive order was issued to ‘close the border’, I can report that the situation on the ground is just as chaotic and dangerous as ever.”
He warned, “the arrests of the terrorists in our major cities is just the tip of the iceberg. Those Russian nationals were identified and tracked. There are countless military-aged men who have already made their way across the border illegally and continue to do so. We have little or no idea where they reside and what they are planning.”
Cartels are pushing people through the southern border ‘more than ever’: Mark Lamb | https://t.co/UwDuys4pee
According to the Post, FBI Director Christopher Wray issued warnings to Congress regarding a potential plot on U.S. soil at the hands of ISIS-K or Islamic State Khorasan, the same group that successfully attacked a concert hall in Moscow with Tajikistani nationals killing 145 people and wounding hundreds.
“Our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home,” Wray told the House Appropriations subcommittee in April. “But now, increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall a couple weeks ago.”
Lamb noted that his Deputies recently made a significant drug bust working in coordination with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol saying, “My deputies just took 80 pounds – 360,000 pills – of fentanyl and 9 nine pounds of cocaine off the street. Can you imagine the millions of people who would likely die if that fentanyl had made it in hands of Americans.” He added, “The border shouldn’t be a photo-op for politicians. Every state is now a border state, every county is a border county. Every school and neighborhood is a fentanyl war zone. We can close the border if the politicians in Washington wanted. The political establishment has shown they don’t have the willpower or experience on the ground to make it happen.”
On Tuesday, June 18, 2024, the Gilbert Town Council will hold a meeting to adopt the boundaries of a redevelopment plan which could encompass up to 18% of the town’s landmass extending from its western boundary eastward to Lindsay Road and then south to Ray Road, an area of almost 9 ½ square miles. The Town is seeking to take this action under Arizona Revised Statue § 36-1471-1491 using laws intended to curb “slum or blighted areas,” terms that could hardly be used to describe the 22nd Best Place to Live in the U.S. by Money Magazine and the 2nd Safest City in America by Law Street Media according to Gilbert’s website.
The controversial move, which seems to carry the broad support of the Town Council, would allow Gilbert to bypass property taxes over the vast swath of real estate, opening a path for the town to engage in a property acquisition and lease scheme known as a Government Property Lease Excise Tax (GPLET) according to Arizona Tax Research Association President Kevin McCarthy.
Ironically, McCarthy, who has opposed this method of redevelopment for years, told AZ Free News that he penned an op-ed for the Arizona Republic crediting Gilbert with not employing this strategy.
“Most of your suburban cities have done very little of this,” McCarthy explained. “Gilbert to date has done none of it. Ironically, I wrote an op-ed for the paper, I don’t know, six, seven years ago that was in the Arizona Republic, crediting the city of Gilbert for doing development the right way and not doing it by harvesting the property taxes that are otherwise owed, making everybody else’s property taxes higher as a result of some development, not being on the rolls and shorting the schools, their monies, that kind of thing.”
Adding another wrinkle to the matter though, is a potential legal vulnerability to the strategy which could land the town in court. McCarthy continued, “And so now we’ve got them wanting to break through and begin using this tool. But what’s different about this now than even five years ago, the last time we made a legislative effort to narrow the use of it, is that there have been court decisions in this space that we’ve been involved in with the Goldwater Institute that have found that this mechanism violates the constitution’s gift clause.”
As reported by the Arizona Republic, a 2020 ruling found that a similar GPLET scheme between the city of Phoenix and developers of The Derby Roosevelt Row, involving a promised tax break, was illegal. In 2016 the Phoenix City Council okayed a plan that would have had developer Amstar/McKinley successfully avoid paying the appropriate property taxes for 25 years. For eight years under the law, the tax would be completely waived, and it would’ve been further reduced for an additional 17 years.
McCarthy explained how the process works: “I assume what happened in Gilbert: Gilbert’s probably got a new economic development director, or maybe it’s the city manager goes to some meetings, and here’s what fund the city of Phoenix is having harvesting the property taxes that otherwise would be owed on a development. To make development easier, the way these deals are usually done is a developer goes to City Hall, and if a city has a central business district that they’ve declared as slum and blight, they know that if they want to propose an $80 million multi-use building that is 30 stories high and have some residential apartment building and then commercial on the first floor, that kind of thing they can negotiate to have it qualify as a GPLET.”
During a Town Council meeting on April 16th, Gilbert Redevelopment Program Manager Amanda Elliott explained that under the law, a municipality must have a combination of nine findings for redevelopment “to eliminate or prevent your [town’s] signs of decline”
Under the applicable law (ARS § 36-1471), the statute states that a “’Blighted area’ means an area, other than a slum area, where sound municipal growth and the provision of housing accommodations is substantially retarded or arrested in a predominance of the properties by any of the following:
(a) A dominance of defective or inadequate street layout.
(b) Faulty lot layout in relation to size, adequacy, accessibility or usefulness.
(c) Unsanitary or unsafe conditions.
(d) Deterioration of site or other improvements.
(e) Diversity of ownership.
(f) Tax or special assessment delinquency exceeding the fair value of the land.
(g) Defective or unusual conditions of title.
(h) Improper or obsolete subdivision platting.
(i) The existence of conditions that endanger life or property by fire and other causes.”
This language is explicitly presented by the Town as the basis for the redevelopment plan. Further, under the finding for the necessity of the law, the legislature explained clearly, “That the existence of these areas contributes substantially and increasingly to the spread of disease and crime, necessitating excessive and disproportionate expenditures of public funds for the preservation of the public health and safety, for crime prevention, correction, prosecution, punishment and the treatment of juvenile delinquency and for the maintenance of adequate police, fire and accident protection and other public services and facilities, constitutes an economic and social liability, substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of municipalities and retards the provision of housing accommodations.”
The law adds, “the acquisition of property for the purpose of eliminating the conditions or preventing recurrence of these conditions in the area, the removal of structures and improvement of sites, the disposition of the property for redevelopment and any assistance which may be given by any public body in connection with these activities are public uses and purposes for which public money may be expended and the power of eminent domain exercised.”
According to the Town Council, the moves toward this step have been gradual and ongoing for more than a decade.
Two Words Not Spoken: Property Taxes
During the presentation given by Elliot, the Town explicitly made the claims that the redevelopment plan “will not,” “Specify individual properties, specify commercial centers industrial complexes or neighborhoods, show up on a title report, displace residents or businesses, institute zoning changes, decrease property values or change the voter approved general plan.” However, conspicuously absent from that list is: property taxes.
McCarthy told AZ Free News that when a municipality negotiates to have a redevelopment qualify as a GPLET, “they are exempted from paying any property taxes on the improvement of the property for the first eight years, which is usually when the maximum amount of tax exposure is going to be on a property. That results in the schools not getting all the property tax money that they should get. The counties get zeroed out. The community colleges get zeroed out. The city themselves, it doesn’t get the property. If they do use property taxes, they don’t get any property taxes out of it. And the way that they execute this is that upon completion of the building, they literally deed the property back to the city.”
He added that a developer then wouldn’t have the property added to the tax rolls, “but it’s put on the tax rolls as an exempt property as any government property is, and [wont’] get a property tax bill for eight years.” In prior years, the period was as high as 25 years, but organizations like ATRA, working with the legislature, succeeded in getting that narrowed to eight. A bill was passed to lower it again to four years, but was vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs. McCarthy noted, “Our argument to lawmakers was that at four years, it’s a lot closer to being able to pass the mathematical calculation of whether or not it’s a gift of public funds and therefore in violation of the constitutional gift clause.” The same gift clause that Phoenix ran afoul of in the Derby ruling.
McCarthy concluded, “Last thing I’ll say is that these property taxes are harvested because in many instances, these deals are agreed to by the cities because there’s a mutual benefit between the developer and the city to exempt the property from paying property taxes and enter one of these GPLET deals, and that is they can enter into any number of agreements that allow them both to benefit financially and maybe not. So not just the developer benefits the city.
So in the example I gave you that the deal might include me as the developer paying for infrastructure that otherwise may not be owed by the developer, but would be a city obligation. Whether the utilities that would be going in the city would bring up to the boundary of the property, any number of improvements in city of Phoenix, it could include, if it’s going to have multifamily, which is a lot of our stuff that we’re seeing in Tempe and Phoenix, a lot of apartment buildings where I as a developer grant concessions to the city council that a certain percentage of the apartments are going to be saved for low-income housing.”
The implications for property taxes also could impact the Gilbert Unified School District considerably as McCarthy observed with properties that “normally would be paying a million dollars a year in property taxes to Gilbert Unified,” not doing so. State funds would be used to subsidize the difference. However, that isn’t so for school bond measures, which are voter approved as are school overrides. “In those instances, the tax rates are going to be higher than they otherwise would’ve been if that property would’ve been on the tax rolls. But even there, the schools really don’t lose money.”
“It’s the other taxpayers that are on the tax rolls that get screwed because the property isn’t paying taxes.”
Gilbert Mayor Brigette Peterson made particular mention during the April meeting that the council is “not trying to turn the town of Gilbert into a city because that’s always a bone of contention with our residents. But it is focused on making sure that this town doesn’t become a city that we’ve seen in the past go downhill. We’re trying to make sure that we’ve learned from other cities’ mistakes in the past and do what’s best for our community to move us into the future and forward.”
Peterson added, “The other thing that we heard at that last meeting that was so well attended was um they they felt like the decisions had already been made. We have not made any decisions, and tonight even we’re just offering more feedback. We’re not voting on anything at a study session, so this still has a lot of time to go through more of a process and to hear from the public too.”
A mailer sent to Gilbert residents in the proposed ‘Blighted area’ indicated that the next meeting is scheduled for June 18, 2024 at 6:30 PM.
