After three failed attempts, a group that is seeking California-style property tax limits in Arizona is preparing for another push to get the question on the 2014 ballot.

The organization has dropped its old moniker – Prop 13 Arizona – in favor of a new name: EZ Property Tax. It has also secured the help of conservative stalwarts, including former state Sen. Russell Pearce and former Republican state party chairman Randy Pullen.

After seven years of failing to get the question on the ballot, a group that is seeking to impose California-style limits on property tax increases is trying again. Lynn Weaver of Prop 13 Arizona said this time, the initiative drive will be sufficiently funded, and it will pay for workers to gather the 259,213 valid signatures that are needed to qualify for the 2014 ballot. The initiative organizers also shed their old name, Prop 13 Arizona, in favor of a new one – EZ Property Tax.

The next frontier in Arizona’s efforts to woo manufacturers may be an exemption on the sales taxes they pay on electricity usage.

Gov. Jan Brewer is working on a proposal to eliminate the sales taxes that manufacturers pay on their electricity, according to gubernatorial aide Michael Hunter. Arizona is one of only 13 states that charges its full sales tax rate on energy usage, he said.

Arizona State Statutes have long required city and county budgets to be posted as legal notices in newspapers of general circulation. State Legislators have added requirements over the years to increase the public’s access to city finances.

Senator Mike Lee of Utah has proposed adding a child tax credit of $2,500 per child, which is in addition to the existing child tax credit of $1,000 per child. This week’s map shows which states benefit most from the existing child tax credit, in terms of the average dollar amount per tax return. Utah gets far and away the biggest benefit, at $665 per tax return, followed by neighboring states Idaho, at $498 per tax return, and Arizona, at $495 per tax return. Massachusetts gets the smallest benefit, at $260 per tax return.

PHOENIX - Saying it makes Arizona a friendlier place to do business, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a major overhaul Tuesday of how the state and cities collect sales taxes and audit businesses to ensure compliance.



The measure places some new limits on what cities can tax beyond what is already subject to the state sales tax. That should provide some assistance to firms that do business in several communities and now have a difficult time figuring out what products and services are subject to each city's tax.

Business owners are celebrating a bill Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law Tuesday that streamlines the sales-tax reporting system in Arizona.

“Thank you for fulfilling my dream of 28 years,” Linda Stanfield, owner of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, said at a bill-signing ceremony packed with business interests and key lawmakers.

But Stanfield will have to wait another 18 months for that dream to come true: The sales-tax-simplification bill won’t take effect until January 2015.

Gov. Jan Brewer signed her sales tax reform bill, bringing closure to an issue that has lingered since the governor’s days in the Legislature nearly two decades ago.

At a signing ceremony at the executive tower, Brewer signed HB2111. The bill streamlines several aspects of Arizona’s complicated transaction privilege tax system, eliminating the multiple audits business must submit to and the need to file TPT paperwork with multiple jurisdictions, as well as simplifying the way that service contractors such as plumbers and electricians pay sales taxes on their materials.

Saying it makes Arizona a friendlier place to do business, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a major overhaul Tuesday of how the state and cities collect sales taxes and audit businesses to ensure compliance.

The measure places some new limits on what cities can tax beyond what is already subject to the state sales tax. That should provide some assistance to firms that do business in multiple communities and now have a difficult time figuring out what products and services are subject to each city's tax.

As the owner of two houses in Scottsdale and one in Glendale, Walter Juessen probably knows more than most about real estate in Maricopa County.

Even so, he finds himself surprised by a property-tax system that seems to him at odds with common sense.

Two years ago, Juessen appealed the valuation of his Glendale house after finding that taxes on that property were proportionately higher than in Scottsdale.

In some ways, his experience reflects that of many others who challenge their property valuation in the county: He lost his appeal.