Maricopa County Board getting flak from two sides

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is getting heat from two figures who traditionally line up on different sides: tax reform advocate Tom Jenney and supervisor candidate Ed Hermes.

As county supervisors met to finalize a budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, Hermes, a Democrat running to replace Supervisor Fulton Brock in District 1, slammed the board for overspending, and Jenney railed against a proposed increase in the tax levy.

Hermes took the Board to task for what he called "irresponsible spending," saying that money for county employees to visit China and Honduras, and for "giant billboards to promote politicians" are a waste of county assets. He further took issue with a pay increase of $5,626 per year the supervisors voted themselves. 

"The Board of Supervisors has its priorities in the wrong places," said Hermes. "I call on the Supervisors to return these lavish pay raises. There is no excuse for this."

Tom Jenney had a slightly different bone to pick with the Board, which he has accused of obfuscating on the issue of property taxes. 

Although the Board's budget proposal anticipates a cut in the property tax rate from 1.1046 to 1.0327, the levy, or total amount of property taxes the county will collect, is set to increase by almost $34 million. While half of the increase will be provided by new properties that weren't assessed in 2007, the other half will be the result of higher valuations of existing properties.

"As we have all seen for the past several years, our rates have gone down, but we are still paying more and more in property taxes," said Jenney. While he admitted that the increase is not large, he also said "to say the existing properties aren’t seeing any tax increase is wrong. It’s a small increase, but it’s there."

The Board will meet on Aug. 18 to finalize the setting of the property tax rate and levy.