Every year 40 percent of primary property tax dollars and 60% of secondary property tax dollars going outside the Verde Valley
In an editorial in the Verde Independent of October 13, 2015 Bill Regner and Carolyn Fisher provided details about how property taxes being paid by residents of Sedona/Verde Valley to support Yavapai Community College are being used outside the Valley—primarily on the Prescott main campus and CTEC located at the Prescott airport. Mr. Regner and Ms. Fisher are members of the prestigious Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee that has been thoroughly looking into how the Community College administrators have been collecting and spending tax revenue going to Yavapai Community College.
According to them, 40 percent of the primary property tax dollars paid for the College in Sedona/Verde Valley and approximately 60% of secondary property tax dollars end up “each year to fund post-secondary education outside of our region?”
Verde Valley tax payers will be funding $55 million dollars over 10 years and receive about $6 million in return.
When it comes to the 10-year-plan adopted in December, 2013 by a majority of the College Governing Board, “the Verde Valley was scheduled for about $3.5 million in capital improvements. Since its adoption, the Plan amount has risen to approximately $111 million with about $6 million coming to the Verde Valley and Sedona campuses. Using a conservative assumption at $5.5 million of excess revenues per year, the Verde Valley tax payers would be funding $55 million dollars over 10 years in order to receive about $6 million in return.”
They ask: “What we could do with somewhere between $5.5 million and $7.1 million every year of excess revenues (going to Prescott) to create and sustain programs and facilities for our local students of every age?” The answer, of course, is obvious.
The full editorial in the Verde Independent can be read by clicking here.