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.

College Administration to ask for tax rate increase; funds needed to mostly  support $111 million dollar construction projects on West side of County

The Community College administration made it clear at the March 3 meeting that it intends to ask the  College Governing Board to approve a property tax rate increase this year. Vice President Clint Ewell suggested that the increase under the law could be as much as ten percent. However, he indicated that the administration will be asking for a 2% increase.

The increase in property taxes is justified by College administrators  as needed to support the $111 million dollar ten-year expansion and renovation projects on the West side of the County. According to press reports, the College already believes it has $67 million in existing revenue toward the goal of $111 million. But it needs to fill the $46 million short-fall. 

The tax increase follows the 3% student tuition and fees increase already approved by the Governing Board in a 3-2 vote at the March meeting.

Voters are essentially helpless to prevent the tax increase.  There will be a public meeting just prior to the Board vote in May.  However, because of work schedules and other commitments, those meetings have in the past been sparsely attended and opposition to the past tax increases ignored.

The Governing Board will receive more information about the proposed tax rate increase at the April meeting and will vote the request up or down in May. A short video clip of the tax rate statements made by Vice President Ewell will be posted here shortly.

Annual property taxes from Verde Valley provide $5 million or more excess revenue to Prescott

Once the Community College revealed the total operating expenses associated with the Verde Campus and the Sedona Center,  which it set at a total of $7 million, it became clear that several millions of dollars in excess property tax revenue existed.  This surplus came to about $5,456,000 in 2012.

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In addition to the excess revenue collected every year from the Verde Valley, Prescott receives all of the millions of dollars in County property tax revenue from all of the other four County districts, all student tuition, which is from $10 to $12 million dollars, and all the money from the State of Arizona. It also applies most of the grant money it receives to the Prescott side of the County.