HB 2586-Letter from the County Supervisors Legislative Liaison

Dear AzLA Members-the following letter from Beth Lewallen, Legislative Liaison for the County Supervisor's Assocation does a great job outlining the negative aspects of HB 2586:

Representative,
The County Supervisors Association is grateful for your opposition to HB 2586: special districts; secondary levy limits (Yarbrough), which failed yesterday on third read but will be reconsidered on Thursday. The proposal would impose arbitrary limitations on county-controlled special districts for jails, libraries and public health, and would significantly hinder counties' ability to meet constituent demands.
The sponsor has committed to amending the bill, removing limitations on fire districts in order to address public safety concerns, but we ask that you continue to oppose HB 2586 for the following reasons:
County-controlled public health districts are important to public safety, but will still be limited by arbitrary caps that do not reflect the high costs of disease prevention, Tuberculosis control and state-mandated food and restaurant inspections.
This proposal impacts the public health districts in Apache, Greenlee and Navajo counties.
County-controlled jail districts are important to public safety, but will still be limited by restrictions that do not allow for dramatic increases in the costs of criminal justice.
Apache County is the only jail district funded by property taxes.
The proposal’s funding formula for county-controlled special districts does not reflect local situations and needs. The levies of these special districts are for dedicated purposes, and county supervisors are accountable for setting the tax rates based on locally-informed decisions and priorities.
This negatively impacts rural Arizona. Maricopa County has voluntarily capped the increases on their special districts for the last two years, but rural areas are still working hard to build the infrastructure they need in order to meet the demands of population growth.
As outlined above, it is small counties whose jail and public health districts will be dramatically impacted by this proposal.
This negatively impacts libraries. The county-wide resources collected for libraries are a critical component of local funding; in Pima County, the county is responsible for funding the library system, while in other areas the county partners with cities and towns to provide the service. Rapid population growth creates the need for libraries to modernize their infrastructure in order to provide information and resources, such as Internet access and research tools for students.
Local officials are already accountable to their constituents for tax rates. County supervisors are required to implement state mandates at the local level, and are responsible for setting tax rates in order to cover the costs of the necessary county services. Arbitrary caps do not reflect the increased costs of important programs such as the protection of public health or library access.
This is not property tax reform. As amended, HB 2586 would limit 1.39% of this year’s secondary property taxes. It limits the special districts that have used taxpayer dollars responsibly, while deliberately ignoring the entities that have dramatically increased their budgets each year.
We ask for your continued opposition to HB 2586; please let me know if I can provide any additional information or assistance.
Sincerely,
Beth Lewallen
Legislative Liaison
County Supervisors Association of Arizona