The Oro Valley Town Council will consider revenue options. At the March 15 council meeting, Council unanimously approved a 60 day public notice for a future discussion of revenue options. The revenue options that will be considered include a change in the sales tax and two new taxes: a commercial property rental tax and a residential property rental tax.
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Council Member Mary Snider supported the motion because there is a specific project that the town is considering and a discussion of revenue options is essential to that project. This project requires funds from a new revenue source.
Snider did not specify the project. Perhaps it is the community center or new ball fields that council members have mentioned. Perhaps it is something entirely different. We shall see.
Some revenue sources require voter approval. For example, voters must approve a property tax, electric or gas utility franchise fees, or a residential rental tax.
Changes in existing sales taxes do not voter approve. These sales taxes include a utility tax, construction taxes, bed tax, general retail tax and a commercial property rental tax.
"Sales taxes is something people watch,," cautions Oro Valley resident Bill Adler. "Among other things, when moving. People who can afford to live wherever they want aren't going to be affected. Most people may shop at Foothills Mall and the Wall Mart there if the sales tax is lower. If the construction sales tax is included, companies could look for other sites in other communities, so there is risk with any kind of tax increase. "
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6 comments:
community center funding?
Yipee, more taxes! On another note, does anyone know why Sports Authority on First and Oracle moved out and if anything is going in?
The Sports Suthority is not in the best of financial shape. I imagine they closed the location because they never had any customers. Every time I went in there I was the only person in the store.
This is from on of our readers: "Regarding the discussion on tax increases, prior to discussing taxes, there needs to be consensus on what dollar amount is necessary. If a community center is desirable, there needs to be agreement on what facilities are to be included. Personally, I feel there are many athletic facilities around Oro Valley of a relatively low cost. If a community center is to be funded, I feel the facility should focus upon arts/cultural services, studio space, craft space, recital, performing arts...dance,etc.,plus meeting rooms of a few sizes.. Some things missing in Oro Valley."
They didn't wait until long after the election to throw this in our face, did they? Sounds like they are following in the footsteps of Pima County with this tax & spend mentality. The $22M bond the county wants for the no-kill dog pound (Prop 415) is absurd. In no time, it will be filled with more unadoptable pit bulls that will cost us over $5K a yr to keep alive until their natural death. And that will be on top of their other property tax increases. And now Oro Valley wants to tax us more to fund some unknown project? When does it end?
We shouldn't be looking at increasing revenue (raising taxes) until a formal police department study has been undertaken. There are plenty of places in that budget that could be cut as Zinkin and Garner have pointed out many times but the OVPD groupies refuse to listen. They'd rather use scare tactics and claim that cutting that budget will be detrimental to citizen safety.
Perhaps someone can tell me how preparing a police report on 3 full pages as opposed to printing the same report on 12 pages (one topic per page with the bottom 2/3 of the page left blank) will affect our safety! It's a huge waste of paper. Paper is expensive. What? They can't even cut their office supply expenses?
How about overtime? Their OT spending was $86,000 over budget. Think the council should look into that?
What about the $16,000 in OT spent on council security? Zinkin and Garner asked why there are two officers present at every council meeting being paid to provide security when Chief Sharp and one of his deputies or a command staff member are present anyway and THEY could provide the security. The officers are paid overtime. Sharp and his deputy and command staff are exempt from OT. Sometimes the officer assigned to council security is a Sergeant who receives a higher pay (ergo a higher OT pay) than an officer would receive. Why do they choose to do everything in the least cost-effective way possible? Because they can?
See? There ARE ways to cut the OVPD budget that won't impede safety.
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