POINT/COUNTERPOINT

Should Sedona enact a city property tax?

By Paul Chevalier | Sedona Verde Valley Times

Sedona, AZ - NO! The City of Sedona should not enact a property tax!

The first responsibility of government is to protect the person and property of its citizens.

People who get elected to office come with agendas and they push these agendas, sometimes without regard to the means used to achieve them.

Often these agendas have worthwhile ends, but an end does not justify the means. It never has. This is one of the most misunderstood truths.

There is no argument from this contributor with the conflict that it would be nice for our city to have a significantly greater supply of money.

With this money Sedona could sewer the city faster, fix all our flooding neighborhoods quickly, fully-fund our library and humane society, and so on.

The list of city needs is only limited by its advocates’ agenda. There seems to be no end of worthy ways to spend money in Sedona.

And yet, that does not justify raising money in a manner that does serious harm to some of our citizens.

A good government’s duty is protect our citizens from harm.

Creating a city property tax at this time would do harm that cannot be justified.

In Sedona, a high percentage of our homeowners are retired and live on fixed incomes.
Sedona property owners are paying property taxes that are already high with further increases as much as 18 percent announced as coming in 2009.

How did this happen?

Our local counties increase the tax value of our homes by using a lag time formula that now makes no sense given that the housing bubble has burst. On top of this, our fire district, to meet its needs, has raised its property tax charge significantly.

Our city already taxes us in many ways.

We all pay taxes to the government of Sedona.

Those who say that property owners are not paying their fair share to Sedona unless they pay the city a property tax ignore all the other city taxes we do pay.

Further, our local government’s job is to protect us economically from itself and it cannot do that job properly if it does not take into account the high property taxes (county, fire, school and community college taxes) that homeowners must pay to live here.

Our city government, to be fair, needs to find other ways to raise money.

Governments have many ways to raise money.

They do not have to rely on property taxes. There are other cities without property taxes and there are even states without state taxes. Some governments do this by relying on taxes from tourism. Our government can do this much more effectively by taking far better advantage of Sedona's natural setting.

Sedona is blessed with beauty that words cannot adequately describe. Sedona is conveniently located just two hours from an international airport.

When tourists travel to beautiful destinations for festivals or conferences they stay in local hotels, eat in local restaurants, buy in local stores and tour the local scenery.  Sedona should by now be both a major festival destination and a major medium sized conference location.

If our government, over the years had focused on these ways of increasing income, then, as a bonus to those of us who live here, great festivals would be providing additional interesting cultural and artistic events to attend.

It can still be done.

Other towns and cities have successfully raised money this way.  My favorite example is Telluride, CO.

Greater Telluride is located five-plus hours from the nearest major airport and has a population of just 3000.

Today it is floating in festivals and has a substantial influx of cash from tourists, for the community, from these events.

How did this happen?

It happened because a continuum of Telluride's city councils had the foresight to understand its needs and potential and those council members decided to LEAD.

Today Telluride has 27 wholesome festivals a year that draw tourists. Several of these festivals are major international tourist draws.

Sedona has far more to offer than tiny Telluride. Why don’t we have the same success?

The answer is that our government never provided this kind of leadership. Sadly, private citizens of Sedona, who have tried to start art and cultural events have too often found our city councils more foe than friend.

It is a credit to the tenacity of some of our citizens that today Sedona has a privately-created successful and growing film festival, well-attended Chamber Music Society events and a wonderful Jazz Festival -- all this because of the foresight and energy of private citizens.

Imagine what would be possible if our city government got behind festival efforts. It would be a win-win for all, including our city government.

If our government did this well, it would not need to think about a city property tax.

With every new council election we have an opportunity for change.

Our next council can solve the current fiscal problems by being prudent and becoming proactive in supporting current and creating new major Sedona festivals such as R&B, Bluegrass, Country Music and Wine Tasting.

Our next council can further increase our city revenue by using its power to get an attractive conference center built.

These are some win-win solutions.

A city property tax is not win/win.

Creating a city property tax would significantly harm some of our citizens, particularly seniors on a fixed income.

That is not acceptable and there are better options available to Sedona.

We need to elect people to our next city council who commit themselves to win/win solutions. We need to elect the candidates who are smart enough and energized enough to enact positive solutions. It would be a failed government that enacts a city property tax.

Those of us who are Sedona voters are ultimately responsible for who gets elected here.

Let’s elect the right people. I do not want to see a city property tax, do you?
 

Related article: The case for a Sedona property tax

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