Central Arizona Valley Institute of Technology Governing Board members reported Wednesday that their meeting Sept. 26 with the Coolidge City Council looked promising.


Three CAVIT board members and the superintendent met with the council to see if Coolidge would donate or sell 30 to 50 acres for a permanent CAVIT campus.

CAVIT has been holding its career and technology education classes in Central Arizona College classrooms and a shopping center but has run out of space and would like to offer more programs.

Property values have gone up dramatically.


That means tax bills will go up.

That is why several lawmakers propose that a key property tax should come down, noting that the state has a $750 million budget surplus that makes it affordable to cut taxes.

A property-tax cut would save money for owners of business and residential properties and shift about $200 million of school funding onto the state General Fund.

For years, Arizona politicians have played a con game about property taxes.


They would hold the line on property-tax rates and claim not to be raising taxes. They would then pocket and spend the additional revenue brought in when those rates were applied to increasing property values.

That gig may be on its way to being over. The shock of the huge increases in property valuations being handed out by county assessors across the state has focused public attention on the true relationship between property values and taxes.

Fed up with rising property valuations that it fears will lead to sky-high taxes, a group has started a petition drive to bring California-style limits on property taxes to Arizona.


The measure, if it gets on the November ballot, would use 2003 property valuations as the basis for future tax bills, negating any potential effect from this year's higher levels. Taxes would be limited to 1 percent of the property's assessed valuation.

Escalating property values across Arizona appear destined to push property taxes to new heights.


The question is: How high? That depends on whom you ask.

The precise answer won't be known until 18 or so months from now after local governments and taxing entities have set their budgets and tax rates. But many homeowners aren't waiting.

State senators approved their own version of a property tax revolt Monday. Without a word of dissent, the Senate gave preliminary approval to a measure to cap the year-over-year increase in the taxable value of homes and businesses to no more than 2 percent.


The voice vote comes within days of homeowners getting their latest notices from county assessors showing their new valuations. In some cases, hikes have been in the 50 percent range.

A debate among taxpayers regarding the most hated tax rarely changes minds. The current legislative session features a debate about whether to direct tax relief to property taxpayers or income taxes or possibly both.


Valid arguments can be advanced about the deleterious impact of most major taxes. However, the property tax historically has endured the wrath of taxpayers. Why? Because unlike other major taxes, the property tax is the object of a complicated annual shell game played by elected officials that ultimately wears thin with those paying the tax.

Despite some concerns about the tax breaks it offers, Arizona's Enterprise Zone program appears headed for a five-year extension.


That means manufacturing businesses looking to locate within designated areas of the state will qualify for income-tax breaks that amount to $3,000 per employee, up to 200 workers, for three years.

Businesses also get a lower property-tax assessment for five years.

A state economic program that attracts jobs and business investment to rural and urban areas with high unemployment and poverty rates is facing extinction because of some strong opposition in the state Legislature.


Some conservative Republicans and Democrats in the state Senate oppose extending the state's enterprise zone program because it offers special incentives and tax breaks to specific businesses.

To understand Proposition 101, it's necessary to go back to 1980. The Legislature met in special session that year and referred to voters a package of 10 propositions that placed ceilings on property taxes and on local spending.


This sweeping tax-reform package, approved by four of every five voters, had as its cornerstone measures that sharply limited tax collections by counties, cities and community colleges to 2 percent per year. In other words, these jurisdictions could exceed their previous year's tax levy by only 2 per cent, plus the value of new construction.