INSIDE TUCSON BUSINESS: Mon., Jan. 14, 2008

County has me primed for taxpayer revolt

Publisher David Hatfield

Sometimes you can read article after article on a particular subject but it just doesn't hit home until ... well, until it hits home. Steve Emerine is a former Pima County Assessor. He wrote several columns last year about the potential of the head-on collision that could take place as a result of increased assessed valuations that were based on the record real estate market of 2005. Those valuations will kick in with this fall's property tax bills.

At the rate things are going we could be deep in the throws of a full-blown recession about that time.

When I received the valuation on our home last year it had increased by nearly 17% over the previous year. I learned last week my appeal was denied at both the county level and the state level.
The facts are my property values this year are the highest they've ever been − by a long shot. The fact for all of us is that according to Marshall Vest, the University of Arizona economist, we're probably in a recession. We don't know how long it will last or how bad it will get.
If one of those property tax rollback measures hits the November ballot, I just might vote for it. Anybody with me?

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