Maricopa County Supervisors Approve Tentative 2008-09 Budget
Primary and Secondary Tax Rates Lowered
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved the tentative 2008-09 budget today, May 21, 2008. Next year’s budget is $2.259 billion, a net increase of only 0.4% over last year’s budget. The increase is a result of mandated state contributions, capital improvements and required employee-related costs, offset by $115 million in operational budget reductions.
Budget reductions that occurred include $42.5 million from departments, which were obtained through efficiencies, elimination of vacant positions, reduction or elimination of non-mandated services and debt. The Elections Department, for example, will reduce the number of sample ballots that are mailed to a household to one, saving $640,000. Many departments reorganized to achieve financial improvements. County Administration utilized available cash to pay-off outstanding debt, saving taxpayers interest costs and reducing the operating burden for FY 2008-09. The County was able to eliminate 242 positions in the upcoming budget, on top of the 195 positions eliminated during FY 2007-08, for a total of 437 positions. Most of these positions are vacant because of a Board imposed hiring freeze that occurred in January, and will not negatively impact health, safety or service delivery.
Maricopa County’s primary property tax rate will be cut by 7.19 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. Since the Supervisors also control the secondary property taxes of the Flood and Library Districts, they enacted a self-imposed imperative to lower the secondary tax rates. This resulted in an overall property tax rate cut of 9.23 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. This is the lowest overall County-controlled combined property tax rate for Maricopa County in twenty-nine years.
This year’s combined property tax rate means a reduction of about $16.14 on a median-priced home valued for tax purposes at $219,500, if the assessment remains the same. The lowered primary tax rate will help offset increased valuations, which lag behind changes in the market. The County-controlled combined tax rate, which is the portion of taxes overseen by the County Board of Supervisors, makes up only 15% of an individual’s tax bill.
The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hold its budget hearing and vote on final budget adoption on Mon., Jun. 16th. Property tax rates are to be set Mon., Aug. 18th.