County budget redux

Taxing choices... Campaign ads incoming ... And no horse racing in Tucson (again).

You are not going to like it, but the biggest culprit behind why your property taxes are probably going up isn’t Pima County.

It’s the state Legislature, where shifting costs from the state to the county will take an estimated $126 million chunk out of the county’s $1.76 billion budget.

And let’s not forget the giant question mark the county should have in place for federal funding that has been awarded, but is stuck in legal limbo under the Trump administration.

The County really only has two options: Slash services or raise taxes.

They’re leaning toward the latter, raising primary and secondary property taxes, which pay for roughly 35 percent of the county’s total budget. They’re also looking to increase the rates for the library district and the flood control district. And arguably, these are the only major revenues the supervisors directly control.¹

Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher will lay out her budget proposal for supervisors to discuss next week — a proposal that would increase property taxes by about $31 for the average Pima County homeowner, although this figure doesn’t include increases associated with the assessed value of your home going up.

And, to be honest, your property value has probably gone up, too.

So who benefits from the increases? Not as many people as you might think. The proposed property tax increases are designed largely to keep the county moving forward without resorting to draconian cuts.

This is a good reminder that the County cut almost every department’s budget by two percent just a year ago.

So today, let's focus on some of the departments that would see a little extra revenue under Lesher’s recommended budget. It has been a difficult budget year, and not every department fared well in the current proposal.

The biggest winners in Lesher’s budget proposal include, but are not limited to:

• Employees: Lesher recommended a 5% pay increase for County employees, roughly two years after the County completed a comprehensive salary compensation study. The increase would be broken up into two raises set six months apart, and it would cost the general fund $15.7 million. For the record, the County still has fewer employees than it did seven years ago.

• Transportation projects: Would get $25 million out of the county’s pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) capital financing program.

• Affordable housing: Would also get $5.0 million from PAYGO.

• Buying land to make into open space will cost the county $2.2 million next year.

• Community Workforce Development: Would see an additional $7.3 million next year to assist with finding housing for unhoused people.(But the program lost roughly the same amount in grants over the last year.)

• The Pima County Sheriff’s Department: Would see a budget increase of about $10.3 million, although Supervisor Matt Heinz has been critical of Sheriff Chris Nanos’ handling of the budget. While Nanos did ask for millions in supplemental funding and got some of it approved, this largely reflects the planned pay increase for county employees.

You can read the entire 515-page budget memo here.

Mercifully, there are some blank pages.

The supervisors are expected to discuss the budget — and the property tax increase— next Tuesday. You can attend in person or watch the meeting live on YouTube.

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If — and it is still a big if — the Pima County Board of Supervisors adopts the proposed $1.7 billion budget drafted by County Administrator Jan Lesher, Pima County residents are going to be paying more in property taxes.

The County estimates the proposal would add $30.77 for the average homeowner.²

The biggest increase would be in the general fund, although the plan contains smaller increases in the library district and the regional flood control district (RFCD.)

For the past few years, County property taxes have been dropping or at least holding below what they were in 2020.

But this leaves out one fairly big factor when we talk about property taxes — the assessed value of your home, which has steadily increased for the last 11 years. Your property taxes are based on the value of your home and the tax rate.

In any event, we won’t know exactly how much the tax rate is going to be until all the various taxing districts — including Pima County — set their rates in the next few weeks.³

But one thing is for certain: Your property taxes will be going up.

No good deed…: Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani is about to get blasted by negative ads as clean energy groups launch an eight-figure ad campaign against him and other Republicans representing districts with lots of clean-energy jobs, the Washington Post reports. Republicans are considering cutting clean-energy tax credits as part of Donald Trump’s budget. However, Ciscomani tells the New York Times that he actually supports the tax credits. Also on the target list is Northern Arizona U.S. Rep. Eli Crane.

Shocking new report finds money helps: A pilot program that gave young people facing housing instability $4,600 seems to have worked. About 90% of the Tucson participants reported being in more stable housing a month later, KJZZ reports based on a new report from Johns Hopkins University.

Chur, mate: One of the pioneers of Southern Arizona’s wine industry — Sam Pillsbury, a man with a storied life, a New Zealand accent and affinity for both hugs and cursing — is retiring and hoping that the next generation will take up the torch, freelance writer Georgann Yara explains in a profile of the industry and the man that ran in the Phoenix New Times.

“People would come up to me, look me straight in the face and say ‘You must be fucking crazy growing grapes in the Arizona desert,’” Pillsubry told Yara. “Never ever once was I threatened by that comment because I knew they were wrong and they were stupid. But it did concern me that we had this big prejudice thing to get through.”

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Is it crazy to try to grow journalism in Southern Arizona? We don’t think so.

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Speaking of storied lives: Tucsonans said goodbye on Monday to former state lawmaker and budget wiz George Cunningham, the father of Councilmember Paul Cunningham. All the big-wig politicos were at his memorial service, Jim Nintzel writes in the Tucson Sentinel.

Still fighting: Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords wrote a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon asking her to meet families of school shootings, per Politico. She has also been lobbying the Trump administration to restore $1 billion worth of federal mental health grants that officials cut.

No takers? At all?

The Rillito Racetrack has beaten the odds over the years, but it looks like there might be some more bad days ahead.

The track will remain vacant after no one responded to the County’s call for bids to lease the property next year, County Administrator Jan Lesher wrote in a memo.

“Horse racing is most likely not achievable for calendar year 2026 due to necessary County procurement, contracting and administrative requirements, coupled with meeting the necessary Arizona Department of Gaming requirements and approvals,” Lesher wrote.

Rillito Racetrack hasn’t hosted any horse races since March 2023. A “tainted” bid process marred the ability to find bidders in the last two years.

This is hardly the first time that the historic racetrack, which was built in 1934, has struggled operationally, including shutting down entirely for a few years.

1. The County is raising some fees—like those at the Pima County Jail—but those won’t have any impact on its main pot of money: the general fund.

2. This is based on the average home being worth $236,691. The amount for your home could vary depending on the current assessment of your home, as well as any ancillary taxing districts you might be a part of — like a fire district.

3. These number do not take into account the proposal by Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz to increase the tax rate by 3 cents (for every $100 in appraised value) to help build affordable housing in Pima County.