With 85 open acres on the Verde Campus, the issue is whether it could lease a portion of that land to a private company for a vineyard or other purposes and the company need not pay taxes
Last week, the Arizona attorney general sued Arizona State University(ASU) in Arizona Tax Court over a real estate deal approved by the Regents who oversee ASU.
He claims that it is illegal for ASU to allow for-profit companies to build on university-owned land, which is tax-exempt. ASU is essentially renting out its tax-exempt status to private businesses, Brnovich said. He seeks to force an unbuilt Omni Hotel to pay taxes.
The lawsuit is important to the Verde Campus in Clarkdale because it has somewhere around 85 acres of vacant land. In the future, that land might be built on in partnership with the College and a private company. Will the private company have to pay taxes? This lawsuit should answer that question.