Aug 17, 2026 Board of Supervisors Regular Meeting

La Paz County, AZ · 2026-08-17 · More La Paz County, AZ meetings · More Arizona meetings

Agenda

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[0:06] 1. Call to Order.

[1:46] 3. Call to the Public: This is the time for members of the public attending in person to comment for a limit of three (3) minutes per person regarding matters not designated for a public hearing. Members of the Board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda. Therefore, pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.01(I), action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter, responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date.

[5:41] 4. County Administrator and/or County Supervisor’s Current Event Summary: The County Administrator or Board Member may present a brief summary of current events summarizing recent occurrences without any discussion or feedback from the remainder of the board. The Board will not propose, discuss, deliberate or take legal action on any matter mentioned in the summary unless the specific matter is already properly noticed for legal action, and then only at such time as that matter comes before the board itself pursuant to its meeting agenda. A.R.S. § 38-431.02(K).

[8:19] 5. CONSENT AGENDA (Discussion and possible action on the following items):

[9:16] 6. Discussion and possible action to approve acceptance of the Animal Relief Fund (ARF) proposal to assume shelter services and authorize staff to begin working on a professional services contract to finalize the partnership, contingent upon ARF meeting all County requirements. - Administration

[13:52] 7. Discussion and possible action to disburse the FY26/27 funding to organizations applying for the La Paz County Community Partners Funding Program, a budgeted item. - Board of Supervisors

[17:15] 8. Public Hearing: Fiscal Year 2026/2027 proposed Tax Levies. - Finance

[42:22] 9. Discussion and possible action to adopt Fiscal Year 2026/2027 Tax Levies. - Finance

Transcript

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[0:06] Good morning. At this time, we're going to call to order the regular meeting of the

[0:10] Paws County Board of Supervisors Monday, August 17th, 2026 at 10.03 a.m.

[0:17] And I invite everybody to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and then remain standing for the invocation,

[0:22] which will be given by Pastor Roger Barnes of Quartzsite Southern Baptist Church.

[0:47] Our Heavenly Father, we just thank you for the beautiful day you've given us in your creation.

[0:51] And thank you for this board here that serves our communities, our towns, our county.

[0:59] We just pray that you give them wisdom and guidance and strength for all the work they

[1:03] do and everyone in our county that serves us.

[1:07] We always pray for truth and kindness and respect among one another where we have

[1:13] difference of opinions sometimes.

[1:16] We pray that we give respect to one another in kindness.

[1:19] And Lord we just thank you once again for the day we pray for Gary and Brennan and the tragic loss of their son.

[1:25] We pray that you bless him and wrap your arms of love around him today.

[1:29] We ask these things and I pray in the name of Jesus.

[1:37] Thank you pastor and if you see him first please pass our condolences on to Gary and his family.

[1:43] Tragic loss.

[1:46] Item number three is called to the public and I have Erica Daniels.

[1:54] Good morning, Erica Dandes of the Parker Regional Chamber of Commerce and Tourism.

[1:59] I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on some of the new and upcoming chamber events and activities.

[2:04] We are currently preparing for our first annual Pumpkin Patch and Harvest Festival,

[2:09] which will be held October 2nd and 3rd at the LaPause County Fairgrounds.

[2:13] We're working on vendors, sponsorship, entertainment, the kids activities, pumpkin patch,

[2:17] and we're going to reintroduce our chili cook-off.

[2:20] We're going to have a pie eating contest and other family activities.

[2:23] we're really excited to bring a new fall event to the community. We're also

[2:27] preparing for our annual Chamber Awards Gala which will take place on Saturday

[2:31] October 17th at Havasu Springs Resorts. Nominations are now open to the

[2:36] community and we will be recognizing outstanding businesses, organizations, and

[2:40] individuals who make a difference in our community. Our Youth Ambassador

[2:44] Chamber Club, aka Yak, is also getting underway for the new school year. We

[2:49] recently presented to the program to students at Parker High School and

[2:53] already have 32 participants interested. We're looking forward to giving our youth

[2:57] more opportunities for leadership, community service, and involvement in local business

[3:01] and civic activities. We continue to focus heavily on membership growth, tourism promotion,

[3:07] and partnerships throughout the community. We appreciate the county and all the local

[3:12] organizations for continuing to work with us. Thank you.

[3:15] Thank you. Next I have, I believe it's Sharmin Johnson. Hopefully I'm saying that

[3:21] correctly.

[3:21] Good

[3:29] morning, Charmin Johnson, I'm the Vice President of the Courtsite Chamber of Commerce.

[3:34] I'm certainly not going to be able to follow her act since this is my first time speaking

[3:41] to you all.

[3:42] What I wanted to do is I wanted to thank you for the funds from last year that supported

[3:49] the Main Street revitalization.

[3:51] we were able to support the improvement of seven different businesses and with

[3:59] that, whether it was the repaving, signage, that type of thing, it's been a

[4:04] considerable improvement and we look forward to any additional funding this

[4:09] year that will be round two for that. I would say that due to the success from

[4:17] last year, as well as the fact that there has been definite damage in court

[4:24] site due to the flooding, that there's going to be additional interest in that.

[4:29] From a court site chamber of commerce activities perspective, I dropped off

[4:36] during the last meeting a save the date, which I'm hoping that you were able to

[4:43] see but November 16th of we're going to have a chill in with the locals business

[4:54] showcase at the QIA from four to seven and the idea is to basically bring in all

[5:01] of the different businesses within court site as well as any from Parker

[5:07] have assumed life that support court site we also would like there to be any of

[5:15] the government and civic leaders so that we can do a meet and mingle it is a

[5:22] social there will be food and alcohol available for any of that so that's all

[5:30] I have today. Any questions? Oh, you can. Have a lovely day.

[5:39] Okay. That's going to bring

[5:41] us to item number four, County Administrator and or County Supervisors current event summary

[5:49] is McDowell. Morning, Mr. Chairman. I don't have any updates at this time. Thank you.

[5:56] Supervisor Irwin, who by the way, it's on the scene or up there yet. Yeah, I do

[6:02] have two. One, I wanted to give an update on the Heartmine Bridge slash

[6:07] Sabola Bridge that went down in the river about two weeks ago. Just one, myself,

[6:14] Jason and Shelley Baker attended a Zoom meeting with the Bureau of Reclamation

[6:18] last week with other agencies and they informed us that their engineers had

[6:25] been out, inspected the bridge other than the portion that is still

[6:29] currently in the river, the rest of the bridge structure is is okay. There's there's no compromise

[6:37] as far as they could tell. They're putting navigation lights on both sides of the bridge

[6:42] should have been completed by last week and they have applied for

[6:47] or plan on applying for federal emergency funding so they can help get that part of the bridge

[6:54] removed from the river kind of similar to what we went through and they will provide

[7:00] updates once they come along and of course funding is going to you know be the key factor

[7:05] into replacing the bridge which they do plan on replacing that section so I wanted to

[7:11] give a quick update on that and I don't know if Jason or Shelly's there if they

[7:16] want to add anything to that or if I got it covered. And also this August 22nd, the Attorney

[7:25] General will be visiting La Paz County, both in Parker and Courtsite at the Arizona Western

[7:32] College campuses. I believe Parker's from 10 to 12, and then Courtsite's from 1230 to 2. So

[7:40] anybody that wants to come get some updates on what she's done in La Paz County and

[7:45] voice their concerns on anything, they're welcome to do so. And that's all I got.

[7:51] All right, Jason is here. Did you have anything to add, Jason? Okay, Jason said

[7:55] you did an excellent job. You cannot add a thing to it. I noticed the AG only gave

[8:00] herself a half hour to get from Count Parker to court site. So tell her don't

[8:04] get stopped speeding because I write our county attorney doesn't make it

[8:08] It doesn't matter who you are, you're going to be in trouble.

[8:13] All right, anything?

[8:16] Nope, I don't have anything this morning.

[8:19] So that will move us to our consent agenda, which

[8:24] is items 5A through M. Are there any consent agenda items

[8:31] that somebody would like to have pulled

[8:33] for additional discussion?

[8:36] Not for me.

[8:36] any. Apparently we're good there in that case I would entertain a motion on consent agenda

[8:42] items five a through M. Move to approve is presented. No second. We have a motion and

[8:49] a second to approve consent agenda items five a through M as presented any discussion

[8:55] on the motion hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye aye aye any opposed

[9:03] motion carries and this will bring us to well we get skip item six and hold it to

[9:09] the end right because nobody here is interested in that it's gonna bring us

[9:17] to our regular agenda item number six discussion impossible action to approve

[9:21] acceptance of the animal relief fund ARF proposal to assume shelter services

[9:26] and authorized staff to begin working on a professional services contract to

[9:31] finalize the partnership contingent upon ARF meeting all county requirements.

[9:38] Ms. McDowell. Good morning Mr. Chairman, members of the board. We're actually

[9:43] excited to be presenting this to you today. We've been working on it for

[9:46] some time. Administration is recommending moving forward with the

[9:50] Animal Relief Fund proposal as a new direction for providing animal shelter

[9:55] services to the county. We believe partnering with ARF will allow the

[10:00] county to provide better and more focused shelter services while allowing the county

[10:05] to continue concentrating on animal control responsibilities. This action does not approve

[10:11] a final contract. The approval will allow us to begin working with ARF to clearly define

[10:18] responsibilities, costs, performance expectations and accountability measures. Any partnership

[10:24] will be contingent upon ARF meeting all county requirements with the final agreement

[10:29] coming back to the board for approval.

[10:34] Any questions to the vice-president Erwin?

[10:38] I'm just going to say some stuff here.

[10:40] I want to tell you that I couldn't be happier

[10:43] that we are finally at this spot.

[10:46] This has been something I've been interested in

[10:48] since 2017 when I took office.

[10:51] I wasn't originally the person working on this.

[10:54] I've had that opportunity now.

[10:56] But it has been a struggle.

[10:58] It has been, there's been a lot of hurdles.

[10:59] It's taken us probably a year and a half of solid work to get to today.

[11:05] But as somebody who comes from the non-profit world and worked in a public-private partnership

[11:11] for 22 years, I think it was, this is something I've always advocated for.

[11:16] You know, government, I hope we're good at some things, but I'm not sure how many,

[11:21] but there's a lot of things we're not good at and that we have people who can do a

[11:24] much better job, in my opinion.

[11:26] So I think moving in this direction is going to be beneficial to the county and the community

[11:32] and probably most importantly the animals that are being taken care of over there.

[11:38] And I know we're not there, we're not done yet, we still have to work through the final

[11:42] parts of this process but today is a big deal in accepting this application,

[11:55] this

[11:55] building that is a separate process from this that is in the process of the RFP

[12:02] right now so we're taking in looking for bids to come in on that and hopefully

[12:06] we'll make progress and this all comes together in a nice tidy little gift box

[12:12] and we can put a bow on it and move forward so again I've gone through the

[12:19] application I think it looks good I know Ms. McDowell has worked tirelessly

[12:23] on this as well as our legal counsel over there and they're the ones you got to watch

[12:26] for.

[12:27] Man, they're tough.

[12:31] But if nothing else, I will make a motion that we approve acceptance of the Animal Relief

[12:38] Fund ARF proposal to assume shelter services and authorized staff to begin working on

[12:44] a professional services contract to finalize the partnership contingent upon ARF meeting

[12:49] all county requirements.

[12:53] second we have a motion and a second any discussion on the motion if not all

[13:00] those in favor please say aye aye I wait

[13:10] a minute now since you guys did that I

[13:11] have to give them the chance any opposed I dare you go ahead I dare you

[13:16] sheriff oh I couldn't see him in the with the light behind him so I wanted

[13:23] to make sure. All right. All those in favor please say aye. We did that right. So it's

[13:29] like a thousand ayes. All right. So that motion carries. Congratulations and we look forward

[13:37] to it.

[13:42] Margaret did you ever think we'd be here?

[13:52] Okay. Item number seven discussion

[13:54] and possible action to disperse fiscal year twenty six twenty seven funding to organizations

[13:59] applications applying for the La Paz County Community Partners Funding Program. It is a

[14:04] budgeted item and I'm going to ask Ms. McDowell, our County Administrator, to go over the recommendations.

[14:11] But before she does, I just want to share with folks this is this is something that

[14:15] I feel like we get to do. It's an opportunity for us to put some money back out into

[14:19] the communities. And then it becomes not much fun sometimes because we had out of

[14:26] app we had eighty six over eighty six thousand dollars requested over the

[14:32] amount we have available because we have a budgeted amount available for

[14:36] community partner programs so the hardest part is they're all great

[14:40] programs everything's worthy and we want to they're all doing good work but we

[14:44] have a limited amount of money that we can spread around so I'm gonna let

[14:49] miss McDowell take it from there. Good morning Mr. Chair, members of the

[14:54] board. Each year the county budgets funding to support local organizations that

[15:00] Provide services and programs that benefit our communities and our residents.

[15:06] Organizations were given the opportunity to apply, and those requests were reviewed by

[15:10] a committee and administration. The recommendations before the Board are based on the services

[15:15] provided, community benefit, available funding, and the information submitted by each organization.

[15:23] The Board has the final authority to approve the funding amounts and can make any changes

[15:27] to the recommendations as needed before final approval.

[15:31] The recommendations are as follows.

[15:36] Bouse Chamber, 12,500.

[15:39] Bouse Elementary, Will Fund, zero.

[15:44] Crisis Shelter Services, 5,000.

[15:48] La Paz County Fair, 9,000.

[15:51] La Paz Economic Development, 20,000.

[15:54] LaPause Regional Tourism, 6,600, McMullen Valley Chamber, 12,500, Parker Area Chamber,

[16:05] 12,500, Parker Library Friends, 2,500, Parker Senior Center, zero, the county is already

[16:15] contributing 100,000 for the Mills on Wheels program, Hort Sight Chamber is 12,500, Hort

[16:23] Courtsite Food Bank 5000,

[16:26] Courtsite Improvement Association 6,900.

[16:30] And those are the recommendations

[16:32] for the community partner funding.

[16:36] Okay, any questions from board members,

[16:40] comments, concerns?

[16:43] If not, I would entertain a motion

[16:45] to approve the disperse the funding

[16:50] as described by our county administrator.

[16:55] Is there a motion?

[16:56] I'll move to approve this presented.

[16:58] Second.

[16:59] We have a motion to second to approve

[17:01] the funding disbursements as presented.

[17:04] Any discussion on the motion?

[17:06] Hearing none.

[17:07] All those in favor, please say aye.

[17:10] Aye.

[17:11] Any opposed?

[17:13] Motion carries.

[17:15] Okay, item number eight.

[17:17] It's a public hearing regarding fiscal year 2026, 2027

[17:21] proposed tax levies.

[17:24] And I don't know if that's gonna be Stephanie

[17:25] or Karen or who gets to take us down this road. Mr. Chairman I'll be having Karen

[17:31] Ziegler our consultant she'll be presenting the tax levy presentation today.

[17:38] Good morning Mr. Chairman I am gonna share my screen can you all see the

[17:44] cover sheet for the tax levy presentation? Yes ma'am. Perfect and you can hear me

[17:50] okay? Yes I'm afraid we can. You'll get used to me.

[18:00] So I'm happy today to go over

[18:03] the tax year 26 levy presentation. The process is by statute that the board

[18:12] has to approve a tax levy by August 17th or the 3rd Monday I believe in August

[18:19] And so we've had collected the budget and required documentations from all the special districts and put together this tax levy presentation for your review and approval.

[18:30] And so what I'm going to do is start at the special districts and I'll move backwards and we'll open it up to for discussion.

[18:39] If you have any items you would like to discuss further.

[18:44] So this here is the special districts.

[18:48] This on this side is the fiscal year or tax year 2025.

[18:54] And then this side here is the tax year 2026.

[18:58] On top is the domestic water improvement districts,

[19:02] the DWIDs.

[19:03] We only have one DWID and that is Wendon

[19:06] that is actually imposing a tax levy this year.

[19:11] As we know last week,

[19:12] we had the meeting on the desert sky DWID

[19:15] And they didn't meet certain requirements to actually impose a levy for 2026, so that is 0 for 2026.

[19:26] The budget for the Wendend Wid is $19,998 based on a net assess value of $1,268,532, which creates a tax levy of 1.5765.

[19:43] five. That is an increase over last year based on their budget.

[19:51] The next, before I move on

[19:53] to the other districts, does anybody have any questions about the DWIDs?

[19:58] I don't believe so. Okay. The irrigation districts, we have three and this was the

[20:07] budgets that were submitted and the net assess value, which calculates the rate.

[20:15] The first two, there was no increase in the rate.

[20:19] The McMullen Valley was actually a slight decrease in the rate for 26.

[20:26] Then we have the sanitary district, which is Buckskin.

[20:29] their rate stayed the same at 1.1883 and then we have the sleds or the street

[20:40] lighting improvement districts. Those rates are based on the amount that we pay

[20:47] for those utility bills, electric bills for those particular lighting

[20:51] districts. That comes from the county budget like I said what we're paying

[20:57] out for electricity. And there's some slight changes in the rates from last year to FY 20 or the

[21:06] texture 26 rates.

[21:10] And if there's any questions, I'm happy to entertain those. Otherwise, I'll move to

[21:15] the next group of tax levies. I think we can move forward. Thank you. So the next group is the

[21:23] cities, schools and fire districts and I'm going to start at the bottom and move

[21:27] up and so we're going to start with the fire districts we have several fire

[21:33] districts there's a maximum tax levy of 3.75 so if you look at you know the

[21:40] Parker fire district their tax levy is 3.3 2 9 9 last year was 3 1 5 2 3 which

[21:49] which is a slight increase of their tax levy.

[21:53] McMillan Valley was 3.7121, just minimal increase

[22:00] or decrease, excuse me, of over last year.

[22:03] We have Buckskin Fire, which is at the maximum right now

[22:07] and was as well last year.

[22:09] Portsite at 3.7063, which is a slight decrease

[22:15] from last year.

[22:15] the Ehrenberg fire district 2.6875. They were actually at the max last year and

[22:25] then the Bowles fire district of 3.3299, which is a slight increase over the rate

[22:31] from last year. There was the two fire districts, I believe it's Parker and

[22:40] McVillain Valley, Stephanie correct me if I'm wrong.

[22:43] Worksite and McVillain Valley.

[22:45] Yeah, they're now appos United or I believe.

[22:49] That consolidation didn't occur before Department of Revenue did what their requirements were.

[22:57] So for the purposes of the tax levy, there will be two separate levies,

[23:01] but then next year those will be combined into one unified district for the 2028

[23:10] budget.

[23:13] Does anybody have any questions on the fire districts?

[23:18] No, but thank you for clearing that up. I was going to hit that one, but yeah, just so people know

[23:21] what's going on there. Then we have the joint

[23:26] technology education district. There's a

[23:29] 0.05 levy there. And then we have the

[23:33] school districts. There's only one school district

[23:37] that has a levy, which is Parker, and it's 1.18

[23:42] which is just slightly lower than what the rate was last year.

[23:49] Then, oh, excuse me, we do have

[23:52] a bunch of them. Yeah.

[23:59] So, yes, I'm sorry, I was, there's a primary rate and a secondary rate. That's,

[24:05] they have the primary rates and then I think Parker is.

[24:11] And that's because, just so you know,

[24:13] that is because that's an override that is voter approved if it was just their

[24:17] regular budget it would be on the primary but it's their override but it's

[24:23] interesting because that years ago I don't know how many five six seven years ago

[24:26] we secondary and primary are taxed the same now it used to be a difference so

[24:34] but that's why they're that's why they fall into the secondary. Thank you

[24:38] that clarification.

[24:42] Okay, then we have the cities and towns. There is no levy for Parker and

[24:49] Cork site and then Arizona Western College. We have a rate of 1.9509. Last year was 1.9894,

[25:00] so slight decrease there. And then we come to the county. And this is where the board is going

[25:09] to have the opportunity to have the discussion and then to set the tax levy for this upcoming

[25:17] tax year. So this number here, 9167187 is based on the estimate that we put in the FY 27 budget

[25:28] when we passed the budget back in June. At that time we didn't have the final figures

[25:34] for the net assessed values and all of that. So it was clearly an estimate. That estimate was

[25:40] based off of some information from the assessor's office on what we felt the tax, the estimated tax

[25:51] coming in would be. So this here is the five-year plan that we review during our budget process.

[25:58] FY27 is the year that we're talking about. We estimated just a slight growth over the

[26:07] FY26 tax rate, and then we also had the personal property tax portion of the solar that we

[26:17] anticipated getting for the first time in FY27. So like I said, these were estimates,

[26:23] those two together total the nine million one six seven one eight seven. So that's a number we move

[26:28] forward in the budget. However, that number is is up for discussion and approval by the board.

[26:37] So there is a calculation worksheet that we use to determine what that tax rate is going to be

[26:45] and whether the county is required to have a truth in taxation what we call TNT hearing.

[26:51] It's based on what the current property tax levy rate is, the net assess value,

[26:59] minus construction, and then some calculations to get down to what we're

[27:06] allowed to go up to without the TNT here. So I'm going to get down here. The

[27:15] maximum amount that the county can tax without a truth in taxation hearing is

[27:22] 9,465. As I mentioned we budgeted 9,167 and that would not trigger a TNT

[27:33] because we would be below the percentage rate. For FY26 we were at 2.5157. So now

[27:43] Now the discussion is what does the Board want to levy for the 26th tax year, 27th budget?

[27:53] So based on this number here, the proposed primary tax rate would be 2.5540, which is

[28:02] a slight increase over the 26th rate.

[28:06] Again, we don't have a TNT or a requirement for a TNT, but down here tells you what

[28:12] the the primary tax would be based on a per 100,000 and I did a calculation here

[28:22] of a million dollar property I certainly can do a hundred that here let me do this

[28:27] one this one I think I did it on a five hundred thousand property so you can

[28:33] see per 100,000 the property tax would be $1,277 on the $500,000 property if we

[28:44] went up to the full amount that would be allowed without the truth and taxation

[28:50] hearing it would be 25791 which would be 1,289. It would still be a slight

[29:00] decrease over what would I guess what the rate would be last year but again this

[29:09] is what the private property tax per 100,000 based on this 2.55 rate hopefully

[29:18] I explain that I'm sorry but this is kind of a complicated formula to to

[29:27] explain. So what I wanted to share here is this was the budgeted amount and this

[29:35] amount can be adjusted. We've had some discussions about keeping this property

[29:42] tax rate the same as last year and to do that this number would have to be

[29:48] decreased. So I plugged in this number here 9,000,025 which is 142,187

[29:57] less than what we estimate

[30:01] That actually brings the property tax rate down to 2.5144, which is just under what we had

[30:13] for the FY26 tax rate.

[30:18] 142,000 in the overall budget is not that difficult to absorb. And

[30:27] it seems like that was the will that we keep the property tax rate the same as last year.

[30:35] So when we come back to this form here, which is what the board is going to approve,

[30:44] you can see if we use the 9 million 167, the rate is 2.5540, but if we plug in the 9025

[30:53] here that drops that rate down to 2.5144. Again last year was 2.5157 which is a slight decrease

[31:05] in the property tax rate. So with that I think I'm going to stop and then I'm going to turn it

[31:11] over to Deuce and let him kind of explain what his thoughts are you know on this tax rate and

[31:17] and probably could do a better job

[31:18] with the history of this than I can.

[31:23] Well, thank you.

[31:25] And yeah, so we always share this,

[31:27] a lot of meetings we share this,

[31:29] that the three board members,

[31:30] we don't get to talk to one another between meetings

[31:33] because we're only a three-member board.

[31:35] So we have to wait and have our discussions here,

[31:37] which is fine.

[31:38] You're welcome to be bored by them.

[31:40] But I understand that all three of us

[31:44] have had the opportunity to go over this with staff and when I had that opportunity I burned

[31:52] a lot of Karen's time and a lot of Stephanie's time but I have been on a, I don't know if

[31:59] I called a mission but I just have a very strong feeling about how we tax folks and

[32:06] Karen did a good job I think of explaining it. The one thing that's left out of this

[32:12] presentation that I think is important for everybody to understand is unless and

[32:18] when you look at your property tax if you look at yourself up online your

[32:21] property value you have a full cash value and you have a limited property value

[32:27] your taxed on your limited property value amount it's in most cases I would

[32:33] say most cases it's substantially below the full cash value that's a good thing

[32:37] because you don't want you want to be taxed on the lower amount but the

[32:41] key to this whole system is by law your limited property value goes up 5% every year until

[32:49] you reach your full cash value. Now I don't know if anybody, if any of us will live to

[32:55] see that because full cash value is what is adjusted when the assessors canvass and

[32:59] do their assessments and do their thing. So the likelihood is the limited cash value

[33:06] is going to go up 5% a year. So even if we keep the tax rate the same, we're going to

[33:15] be receiving 5% more from property owners than we did last year. So that is why when

[33:24] I met with staff, I was advocating strongly that we maintain the current tax rate and

[33:33] it'll be a little actually fraction, small fraction less.

[33:38] But I don't do that haphazardly

[33:40] when I have that conversation.

[33:42] And if anybody's been paying attention

[33:44] for the last seven or eight years,

[33:46] La Paz County has come a very long way

[33:48] in our financial portfolio in the way we look.

[33:51] We're not, in 2017, we were looking to borrow money

[33:55] from anybody that would give it to us

[33:56] just to pay the bills.

[33:58] You know, we're in a much better place now.

[34:00] We have a reserve in this year's budget

[34:03] budget and I've applauded staff every step of the way on this, but on this year's budget

[34:08] we have money budgeted to continue paying down the pension debt, which is critical.

[34:15] And then we also this year budgeted a contingency and as well as adding money to our reserve,

[34:23] which I think are all things, those are things I support, I think they're all important

[34:26] and I think it's good financial stewardship.

[34:30] That said, as opposed to taking more from the taxpayers,

[34:36] and when I look at a contingency of 1.2 million,

[34:39] I feel like we can easily afford

[34:41] to go to that lower number, Karen quoted,

[34:44] which was the 9,000,025 and whatever change

[34:48] to bring us back to last year.

[34:50] And I would be, I will feel good

[34:54] if we can do that this year.

[34:55] I my goal that I've shared with staff repeatedly is I would like to see us drive the tax rate

[35:02] down much more substantially in future years and I say that because we're we're receiving

[35:09] new monies through our solar program what we lease the land which is a great thing and

[35:15] everybody on this board has supported that for a long time and we're starting now finally

[35:20] to reap those rewards we're seeing the revenues come in.

[35:23] And I know we have a lot of needs in our county and we're addressing a lot of that in this

[35:28] year's budget, but I also want to see the taxpayer benefit directly from that if possible.

[35:34] That is my goal.

[35:36] And I don't know, this may be a complete coincidence, so I'm going to say something

[35:40] I shouldn't, but when I was going over all the tax rates for this year, many of them,

[35:47] the districts you saw, are reducing their tax rate.

[35:52] I'm looking at Bicentennial by almost $0.39, Salome by $0.65,

[35:58] Winden School District is lowering their tax rate by $2.94.

[36:03] I think that's probably in response,

[36:06] and Carrie Ann can tell me if I'm wrong or Rex,

[36:08] but I'm pretty sure that is in direct response

[36:11] to the new business personal property tax being collected

[36:15] from the solar project.

[36:16] Because we receive the rents, but we also get property tax

[36:20] from those investments that are being made out there.

[36:23] So the districts benefit, I would say,

[36:26] much more and quicker than the county at large,

[36:29] because the county obviously is spread out

[36:31] over the 4,500 square miles where those districts,

[36:35] if the district happens to have a solar project in it,

[36:38] you see a $2.94 reduction in their tax rate.

[36:42] So I would like to see the county moving in,

[36:45] I would say, a similar direction.

[36:47] We're not going to be able to drop it like that.

[36:48] obviously we're not like I said they're a much more direct impact but I feel like

[36:54] we're doing we've done a very good job of straightening out our finances and I

[36:57] think we're in a very good place and I just want to see the taxpayers like I

[37:02] said benefit from that I was told this may not be the right year to do

[37:07] something more substantial hopefully next year after we have a year under our

[37:11] belts because the money is budgeted from the solar but we're scheduled to

[37:15] receive it in December. I do agree strongly that we shouldn't, we don't want to spend

[37:20] it until we receive it. It's budgeted and it's out. It's owed to us, but we want to make

[37:24] sure there's no hiccups before we spend it. But again, for $140,000 or whatever it was,

[37:31] I feel comfortable that we could at least do a good showing to our taxpayers by maintaining

[37:36] our tax rate. That's my pitch and I will open the floor to the other supervisors

[37:42] to agree or disagree or

[37:48] that's you Holly oh no you did a great job I'm

[37:54] explaining that and I went over all of this previously with Karen and Stephanie

[37:59] and I couldn't agree more you know I think that the 142 it will be easy to

[38:06] absorb especially with the extra revenues that we see coming into the

[38:10] county and the taxpayers to you know deserve for us to keep it at the same

[38:16] rate in my opinion and I do not disagree with leaving things the same if if you

[38:23] look at that solar projected the five-year plan it shows maybe four million

[38:28] next year instead of two million this year I still think we really have to

[38:34] concentrate on getting rid of any debt and that whether you call it pension

[38:39] plans the state gave us a giant number that we owe and they get to charge us

[38:46] seven and a half percent interest on that every single year. You inherit a debt

[38:52] and have to pay interest on that debt. The side is just paying it off so yes I

[38:58] think that as a county as a whole to get financially sound you know giving

[39:02] back some is great but let's allocate most of that money towards getting

[39:08] getting rid of the debt, it will jump down every year, then you give people back, lower

[39:15] their tax rate, a little bit of time, but we need to really concentrate future years towards

[39:23] debt reduction in my opinion.

[39:25] And I, again, I think you and I have always seen eye-to-eye on debt reduction, I strongly

[39:31] agree and that this, if we do what we're talking about, it's not going to change

[39:35] what we budgeted in that regard.

[39:37] It would be the contingency line that would be affected.

[39:40] But again, I do think it's our, as stewards of the taxpayers' money, I want to pay down

[39:46] that debt for sure.

[39:48] But again, I want to see the taxpayers receive some of that benefit.

[39:53] And again, the underlying thing that just eats me alive is even if we leave it the

[39:57] same, the tax bill is going up 5%.

[40:02] So they're going to pay more if we leave it the same.

[40:04] And I want to be conscious of that.

[40:09] The percentages are easier to get lost when you talk about dollars.

[40:13] Right, right. And it's not, on most homes, it's not a monumental amount.

[40:18] But the other thing that we have going for us as a side note as being supervisors is when you get your tax bill,

[40:25] maybe you can spread this around, no offense to our districts that are in the audience.

[40:29] But when you get your tax bill, you have to look at each line, right?

[40:33] because people call when they get their tax bills and they're upset at the amount of taxes

[40:38] they're paying and I have to show them which I always keep a tax bill in my little calendar

[40:44] so I can show somebody the different lines and the county is we're affecting one line

[40:51] on that tax bill.

[40:52] The rest of those lines that add up to what you pay are all the districts.

[40:56] So you have to talk to the districts individually if you think that they need to be revisiting

[41:01] anything.

[41:02] But yeah, we're responsible for that one line on your tax bill.

[41:25] Right, well that's what we're talking about, yeah.

[41:33] Well I've heard Holly kind of say that and I've heard you say that.

[41:36] So I guess I would ask if there are any other questions before we have the public hearing about it.

[41:42] Oh, I went way too far on this because we did all the present.

[41:45] We shouldn't even be talking yet.

[41:46] Everything we said has to be said over again.

[41:48] No, I just got sideways, because I've been on this for so long.

[41:54] Okay, thank you for pointing that out, that this is a public hearing.

[41:59] So we did want to hear the presentation, but this is your opportunity, if you have any

[42:03] comments that you would like to make, this is your opportunity to do so.

[42:08] If anyone wishes to comment, now is the time to approach.

[42:15] Okay, seeing nobody approach, we're going to go ahead and close the public hearing,

[42:20] world's longest public hearing and we're going to move on to item number nine discussion of

[42:25] possible action to adopt fiscal year 2026 2027 tax levies we'll make this one the shortest

[42:34] move to approve oh second wait okay well time out because we have to see the tax rate yeah

[42:41] yeah we have to we have to determine what we're doing we're gonna instructing staff so Karen

[42:45] What is the can you tell us the full number? It's nine. It's nine million twenty five thousand

[42:52] That is correct. Mr. Chairman nine million oh two five. Oh, even okay. Yeah, it is okay, so

[42:57] So the motion would be to I guess we would adopt the levy, but we would is though that is the levy amount

[43:04] So that's what we have to adopt so we would adopt the levy at nine million

[43:09] 25,000

[43:11] Which would equate to a two point five one four four rate, right?

[43:16] I move to approve the nine million twenty-five thousand at two point five one four four

[43:22] I'll second and all the other levies right of course and all the other

[43:26] All right, so that we have a motion and a second

[43:31] To a take action to adopt the fiscal year

[43:35] 2627 tax levies

[43:37] Instructing staff that the county levy for La Paz County will be at the amount of nine million twenty-five thousand

[43:44] in equating to a tax rate of 2.5144.

[43:49] Any discussion on the motion?

[43:52] We just have to figure out where to absorb it

[43:54] in the budget just to give that.

[43:56] Yeah, and I think, well, we were pointing at contingency,

[43:59] but yeah, but that would be like staff can work on that.

[44:02] So, all right.

[44:04] There's no other discussion.

[44:05] All those in favor, please say aye.

[44:08] Aye. Aye. Aye.

[44:10] Any opposed?

[44:12] Motion carries.

[44:13] with that. Thank you to all of our our friends and everybody else who's here today and with that we're adjourned.

[44:20] Thank you.