Why Hos Hoskins is wrong about your taxes

The Arizona Republic
Monday, September 28, 2015
Kevin McCarthy

Maricopa County tax collector Hos Hoskins’ decision to spike this year’s tax bill with a meandering editorial on his distaste for several property-tax reforms dating back to 1980 caused considerable confusion with taxpayers.

In addition to being an abuse of the taxpayer-funded mailing, his opinion piece is riddled with errors and omits salient points in order to satisfy a false narrative.

Arizona’s property-tax system is one of the most complicated in the country. For any taxpayer, getting to the bottom of why taxes climbed can be a challenge. One of those complications is that Arizona classifies and taxes property based on usage. For example, given the same market value of property, business, residential and vacant land are all taxed at different levels.

For decades, Arizona businesses have been taxed at roughly twice the level of residential property. As a result, Arizona business property taxes have historically ranked in the top 10 nationally while residential taxes have ranked in the lower quartile.

There is ample room for rational debate on whether this system is grounded in good public policy, but regrettably, it also provides fertile ground for political pandering. Hoskins’ one-sided attack on state policymakers, the Arizona Tax Research Association and the Arizona business community established a new low in that regard.
See more here http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2015/09/28/hos-hoskins-prop...