LD17 (SaddleBrooke) lawmaker wants zero property tax
VIA Capital Media Services Howard Fischer | January 20th, 2023
PHOENIX — The way Rep. Rachel Jones (House LD17) sees it, once you have paid off your house you should not have to worry about property taxes.
But the first-term Republican lawmaker from Tucson acknowledged there are a bunch of practical questions with her proposed legislation, including who would — or should — get a tax break. Her plan probably needs some major amendments to get any traction, she said.
But Jones said she decided to swing for the fences and start out asking for everything, figuring that gives her lots of negotiating room.
“You go big,’’ she told Capitol Media Services. Some of it, Jones said, is philosophical.
But she said her focus actually is narrower.
“My main heart issue behind it are those, especially elderly folks who are on a fixed income, who lose their homes,’’ Jones said. “I just talked with a constituent whose uncle lost his home last year because of this very issue. That’s just unacceptable.’’
Only thing is, her House Bill 2315 does not have any sort of “means testing.’’ She acknowledged that means anyone who pays off a mortgage at any age — or even has the resources to buy a house for cash — would be entitled to escape all property taxes if her measure were to become law as written.
Some elderly will take out a “reverse mortgage,’’ using the equity in their paid-off homes to be able to stay there and pay other bills. And as HB 2315 is written, those people would go from paying no property taxes at all to once again having an annual bill.
Shifting the tax burden?
Jones also said she wants to be careful not to harm local governments which, unlike the state, are heavily dependent on property taxes. Schools also depend on locally raised taxes for budget overrides and paying off the bonds to build new schools.
There might not be any net loss of revenues, though.
Most levels of government figure out how much they need to raise. Then they divide it into the total assessed valuation of the community. The result is a tax rate.
That, in turn, raises the tax rate that is imposed on everyone else who is not exempt from paying taxes — meaning the taxes not being paid by those with paid-off homes is shifted to them.
“I’m hoping to have a full, big compilation of all of that this week,’’ she said.
Renters’ contributions
Jones said she sees another side, too.
“There are a lot of renters in Tucson currently,’’ she said. “It’s becoming a big rental market. I don’t particularly like that people that are renting homes aren’t contributing to their community, either.’’
The landlords who own the homes and apartments are themselves paying property taxes, which they can pass on to tenants.
There is another unanswered question in HB 2315.
As crafted, it would exempt those without mortgages from paying any property taxes. Those include not just the basic levies to operate government but also the taxes that people voted to impose on themselves, such as overrides, bond debt and special districts for everything from fire protection to street lights.
That would mean people who are exempt from taxes are able to approve new levies that affect everyone else.
Pima County’s rate is highest
How much Arizona homeowners might save if Jones’ bill were to become law depends on both the value of the home and where they live. The home’s full cash value is roughly equal to about 80% of its market value. Owner-occupied homes are assessed for tax purposes at 10% of that value.
So a home valued by assessors at $350,000 has its property taxes computed based on $35,000. Assuming a tax rate of $9 per $100 of assessed valuation, that’s about $3,150 a year.
No date has been set for a hearing on Jones’ measure.
Thanks for the details. It’s certainly too soon to understand how this proposal would actually work. Is shooting for the fences without understanding the ramifications good practice?
Nope!
A very Large bite of the apple. Perhaps consider what other states, such as GA, have as current property tax law. At age 65 the school portion of the tax bill is exempted. No means or any other tests.
We’ve paid into (all too often) a failed system most of our lives and most probably don’t have students in the system…just saying.
Should have thought it through before asking staff to do all that work.