GVCCC considers bond priorities
for 2008 vote

 

FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2007

By Jim Lamb

Next year, Pima County plans to ask voters for permission to sell bonds worth $800 million to fund a wide variety of projects, and Green Valley has been asked to get its request in.  The Green Valley Community Coordinating Council’s executive committee heard that request Wednesday, and also agreed that it probably won’t be able to make a recommendation on a proposed half-cent county sales tax.  There are about $57 million worth of Green Valley projects that could be funded by bond sales revenues.  Other communities, the county itself, school districts and others have asked for about $4 billion.  Trimming those to $800 million will be a tough task.

Green Valley resident Tom Six is a member of the Bond Advisory Committee.  He asked the GVCCC’s executive committee to prioritize its request.  He said some other county entities have given some of their requests some 1s, some 2s and some 3s.  Others, he said, have given A’s, B’s and C’s.  But none, apparently, has given its top priority, then the next priority and then the next and so on.

The Green Valley proposals are:

  • BAJA senior sports complex, $5 million.
     
  • Canoa Ranch rehabilitation and restoration, $5 million.
     
  • Canoa Ranch renovation, $7 million.
     
  • Green Valley Government Center, $13.3 million.
     
  • Green Valley Library expansion and remodeling, $3.7 million.
     
  • Green Valley Performing Arts/Learning Center, $20 million.
     
  • Green Valley West Desert Preserve, which is part of a $71 million community open space project. There are 21 proposed acquisitions in that request.


    Sahuarita will prioritize its requests to share in the bond windfall, if it passes the voters.  Executive board member Sandra Stone, who headed the county’s Canoa Ranch committee, commented that the ranch should be a county-wide request. “It benefits the whole county,” she said.  The GVCCC’s executive committee meets again May 30.

    Pima County is Arizona’s only eligible county that doesn’t impose a sales tax.  County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has proposed adopting a half-cent sales tax and in turn lowering its property tax rate.  But unlike most actions by the Board of Supervisors, adopting a sales tax would require all five board members to approve it.  Supervisor Ray Carroll, who represents Green Valley and Sahuarita, says he’s opposed to a sales tax.  The GVCCC executive committee had hoped to hear from him and a sales tax proponent so it could recommend its position on the issue.  But the executive committee may or may not meet in June, July or August to take a stand on the sales tax issue.  And any decision it would take would need to be approved by the board of representatives, which doesn’t meet again until September.

    The county Board of Supervisors will adopt the tentative budget May 22, the permanent budget June 19 and set the taxes Aug. 20.
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