INSIDE TUCSON BUSINESS: Mon., Nov., 24, 2008

Pima County's land-buying spree will raise property taxes

Valley Views by Steve Emerine

 

The Pima County Board of Supervisors faces most of the same problems mentioned last week for Tucson's mayor and council. Stores are closing, firms are laying off workers, bank-ruptcies are rising, foreclosures are increasing, consumers are spending less, and crime is up.

And, like their city counterparts, the supervisors seem oblivious to the local economy. One of the best examples is a recent report that county officials hope to take advantage of the current real estate slump to “save” us lots of money.

They want to buy 320 acres of land on the west side of Tumamoc Hill, 4,135 acres of the Sopori Ranch near the Pima-Santa Cruz county line, and 4,417 acres near the proposed Arroyo Grande development on the Pima-Pinal county line, 103 acres next to Tucson Mountain Park and 67 acres along the Santa Cruz River near Valencia Road.

The cost for these 9,000-plus acres will be well over $25 million.
Worse yet, selling bonds now to buy vacant land will raise next year's secondary county property tax rate. They don't often admit the rate would go down if they didn't sell new bonds when they pay off the old ones. Instead they prefer to pay off their credit card and then go on another shopping spree.

FULL OPINION: http://www.azbiz.com/articles/2008/11/25/opinion/columnists/steve_emerine/doc4926fe659853d114590379.txt