Letter from Lake Montezuma Property Owners Associations sets out reasons for opposing property tax increase

“Dear Governing Board Members:

“The Board of the Lake Montezuma Property Owners Association would like to express our concern and opposition to the proposed property tax increase.  The large portion of the Montezuma-Rimrock area property taxes (currently 15%) which are collected to support the College District coupled with the lack of services provided from the district to our area has been and continues to be a source of discontent for residents.”

“We participate with and support the recommendations of  the Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee created by the Yavapai College District Governing Board.  We thank you for this avenue of communication and request that you accept the committee’s recommendations.”

“Thank you for this opportunity to comment.”

“Respectfully,

“Janet Aniol

“Lake Montezuma POA Board

“Jim Bowser, Ron Melcher, Phil Edwards, Janet Aniol, Lisa Taylor, Sharon Olsen, Alan Spacone

“PO Box 5292

“Lake Montezuma, AZ 86342”

The letter was ignored by the three-member Prescott/Prescott Valley majority on the Governing Board

West County Representatives’ rubber stamp College President Penelope Wills demand to increase property taxes at Special Taxation session on Tuesday

For almost 50 years, the Verde Valley has stood in the shadow of the Prescott Community College Governing Board’s political power. This has allowed the Board, under a little known Arizona statute, to funnel money into projects and programs on the West side of Yavapai County while sending back to the East side of the County just enough financial crumbs to keep residents and a few weak-spined local politicians like the mayors of Clarkdale and Cottonwood from raising serious questions about how it is being spent.

During the past five decades, the success of the Prescott fundraising scheme has been phenomenal. Sedona and Verde Valley taxes have been used to build two campuses, dormitories, athletic fields, a professional tennis court, a basketball arena, indoor swimming complex, and a huge dinner theatre seating over 1,000. All on the West side of the County!

These projects, and many more, have depended on draining (some now say “stealing”) from 30 to 40 percent of every property tax dollar coming from Sedona and the Verde Valley and keeping it in Prescott. It has also depended on consistently raising property taxes and student tuition on a regular basis (6 of the last 10 years property taxes have been raised) (tuition raised in some form every year over last decade).

The outcome on Tuesday was no different. There are five persons on the Governing Board but only two represent Sedona and the Verde Valley. Those two Representatives made solid, rational arguments in opposition to the 2% property tax increase but lost 3-2. A formal Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee had also asked the Board not to impose a tax increase. It was ignored by the West side trio.

Prior to Tuesday’s taxation meeting, the Blog believed that Chair Pat McCarver and former Chair Ray Sigafoos were in the back pocket of College President Penelope Wills—their history is to rubber stamp anything Penelope or any administration dreamed up. The only question was how new Prescott Valley Board member Steve Irwin would vote. However, he did not disappoint Wills. It was his vote that gave Prescott the needed majority to keep more money flowing into the Administration’s pockets.

If you go back over the last ten years, you will discover that the Prescott majority on the Governing Board has rubber stamped every tax increase and every tuition increase asked for by the administrators. Why not? They have used it to build a superb college over there—not a community college. Meanwhile, they have left the East side of the County to wither on the vine.

Will it ever change?

List of reasons why District Governing Board should reject increasing property tax rate at its June 9 meeting in Prescott

•1. There have been no public forums where the need for the tax rate increase has been thoroughly discussed, justified or questioned.
•2. Most County residents, especially those on the West side or the County, are totally unaware of the unchecked power of the Board to raise taxes today.
•3. County residents are not allowed to express their view by voting on the tax increase, which by necessity would inform them of what is going on.
•4. The College just increased basic student tuition by 4% on the erroneous premise that state aid would be reduced.
•5. College cash flow is the highest in its history.
•6. The College is sitting on $20 million dollars in reserve accounts that it has no plans for spending.
•7. Arizona increased rather than decreased its state aid to Yavapai Community College this year.
•8. The actual headcount of students taking courses from the College (on-line, face-to-face, in high school, anywhere) has plunged from 16,312 in 2007 to 11,518 in 2014.
•9. Since 2012 the College has eliminated 46 full-time positions, which reduces the cost of operations.
•10. Since 2011, budgeted scholarship assistance has been reduced by over $1 million dollars.
•11. The College is using millions of dollars of primary taxpayer property taxes to support a $118 million dollar capital program rather than seek voter approval for General Obligation bonds, which are repaid through a secondary tax. The College is using this method to hide from County residents what it is doing.
•12. The result of using primary taxpayer money for capital projects is that primary tax revenue that almost everyone in the County thinks is going to scholarships, educational programs, and staff salaries is being poured into bricks and motor without their approval.
•13. The focus by the College on the $118 million dollar capital plan is being carried out at a time when about 37% of all classes are online and demand continues to grow.
•14. The College wastes taxpayer money on projects such as the $1.3 million dollar professional tennis complex is just built when it doesn’t even have a tennis team.
•15. The College has increased the primary tax rate in 5 of the last 9 years.
•16. The College has increased student tuition in some form ten consecutive years.

The Yavapai Community College District Governing Board will consider whether to increase your property tax rate by 2% at a public hearing to be held on the Prescott Campus June 9 at 11 a.m.  in the  Community Room, Building 19, Room 147, 1100 E. Sheldon Street, Prescott, AZ.  If you can take time off from work to attend and speak your mind, you will have 3 minutes to give the Board your view about the increase.

Wills’ seeks 6th property tax increase in the last ten years

President Penelope Wills’ is pushing hard for a property tax increase.  In her most recent report to the Governing Board, she is asking for a new tax levy at 2.0% above the current year’s levy. This increase plus new construction taxes means the College will  see an increase of $1,413,900 over the current year’s levy. This amounts to a  3.4% increase over the current year’s levy of $41,253,800. The primary tax rate is projected to increase from 1.8606 per $100 of net assessed property value to 1.8721 per $100 of net assessed property. 

The Wills’ administration will do a lot of serious arm twisting to ensure it gets the tax increase at the Governing Board Work Session to be held next Tuesday, May  19 on the Prescott Campus in Building 32, room 119. If successful, the Board will vote to approve the property tax increase at its June meeting and taxpayers will have no recourse to challenge the decision. The meeting can also be seen and heard on the Verde Valley Campus, room G-103 (video conf).

Governing Board to convene Wednesday, May 6 to consider acquisition of real property in the Verde
Valley

It’s not clear whether the surprise announcement of the secret meeting to be held Wednesday at noon by the District Governing Board is a tax stunt or a serious effort to develop the Yavapai Community College in the Verde Valley.  All that is known at this time is that the Board is to meet in secret at noon to discuss the purchase of some property somewhere in the Verde Valley.  

The Board is currently under pressure to turn down the request from the Administration to increase property taxes for a 6th time in ten years at its June meeting.  This purchase may be just a political stunt masterminded by the administration to try and blunt the opposition coming from the Verde Valley to the tax increase.  The timing seems strangely linked to the effort by the Wills’ administration push to raise County property taxes.

More to come.

College Verde Valley Advisory Committee again recommends no tax rate increase at this time

For the second time in two weeks, the Verde Valley Advisory Committee to the College Governing Board has recommended that the Governing Board not increase the property tax rate when it considers this issue for a final vote in June. At an earlier meeting this month on April 1, the Advisory Committee had also recommended no tax increase. However, it added to the April 1 motion that it would revisit the tax rate increase issue after hearing from the Community College’s Vice President of Financial Affairs,  Dr. Clint Ewell, who was scheduled to speak at the Committee’s April 15 meeting.  

After hearing Dr. Ewell’s presentation this morning (April 15), the Board was unanimous in voting to recommend no tax increase at this time.  On April 1 there was one abstention from the vote and one Board member who disqualified himself from voting on the issue. (There was one member who disqualified himself from voting on this issue today.)  

The Board is composed of outstanding citizens appointed by local and County officials from throughout the Verde Valley. They represent a cross-section of all the residents of the entire Verde Valley. 

The Committee vote against raising property taxes at this time was initially sparked for discussion and action when Committee members heard the College administration state during the March District Board meeting in Sedona that it was going to recommend a 2% property tax increase in property taxes.

Unfortunately, the District Governing Board has a long history in Yavapai County of rubber stamping any recommendations coming from the College Administration for a tuition or tax increase. 

The Wills’ administration is pushing extremely hard to increase property taxes just after raising student tuition by 4%. No doubt, the Wills’ administrators will be doing a lot of arm twisting and quiet politicing with Board members before the final  vote is taken on this issue in June.   

Wills’ threatens College could raise property taxes 10% but will only ask for 2 % at Camp Verde Council session

The Community College political campaign train to gain support for a two percent property tax increase is chugging right along.  During each stop President Penelope Wills’ or one of her executives tells anxious listeners that they could raise County property taxes to support the College by 10%.  However, out of the goodness of their heart, the raise will only be 2%.  This is a tried and true political ploy. 

The College does not tell listeners that the property tax increase is needed to pay for the $111 million dollar construction campaign for the Prescott side of the County. Or, that it is bankrolling a new unneeded $45 million dollar campus in Prescott Valley.  Or, that it used $1.3 of your tax money to build a tennis complex for the City of Prescott–the College does not have a tennis team. 

It also hides from listeners the fact that it already has $67 million dollars in existing revenue to finance these projects, or so it claimed to the Verde Independent on February 8, 2015, page 3A.  

The College says nothing about about the fact, as the chart inserted below shows, that since 2007 there has been a drop of almost 5,000 students.  Nor that the revenue cut by the State in 2012 has been more than made up by tax and tuition increases.  In fact, the amount of revenue in the hands of the current administration is more than $5 million dollars above the amount it had in 2012.

Take a look at the following chart, if you doubt the above data.

 Your property taxes will go up on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, 1:00 p.m. after a short public meeting on the Verde Valley Campus – Building M, Room 137, 601 Black Hills Drive, Clarkdale, AZ.

More property taxes needed to continue financing $111 million dollar construction projects

The Community College promised at the March 3 Governing Board meeting that it would seek at least a 2 percent property tax increase this year. It noted that the tax rate had not been increased for two years.

The College seeks the money so it can continue financing the construction projects it has decided are needed with about 90% or more of them on the West side of the County. Several are already in progress.

The College has experienced a continual decline in enrollment over the past several years.  Therefore, from its view, student tuition and property taxes must make up the deficit resulting from the absence of student tution.

County voters are relatively helpless to prevent the tax increase unless three of the five District Governing Board members can be persuaded to not grant the administrators increase.

The administrators will put forth their justification for the increase at the April Board meeting and a vote will be taken in May. Unlike all other educational institutions in Arizona, the Governing Board has the power to increase property taxes with only a public meeting before the final vote is taken. In the past, any objection by the public at the public meeting to a tax increase requested by College administrators has been ignored by the Board.

Residents in the Sedona taxing district may well be among the most upset with the proposal to increase property taxes. With a tax increase, by 2016 that district will have paid close to $100 million dollars in property taxes directly to the Community College. Many in the taxing district feel they have received very little in return.