Well it doesn’t happen every day but you got to give Pima County administrator Huckelberry and the controlling majority of the Board Of Supervisors qudos. They deserve major credit for actually balancing a their budget WITHOUT raising property taxes. In fact the counties tax rate has been lowered to its LOWEST IN 35 YEARS!

From today’s Citizen story by Gary Duffy – HERE.

The fiscal plan includes a decrease in the primary property tax rate from the current $3.39 per $100 valuation to $3.31 – the lowest in 35 years, Huckelberry told supervisors Monday in a budget memorandum.

Overall, it calls for a reduction in the combined property tax rate from the current $4.63 cents per $100 valuation to about $4.55 per $100 valuation.

The financial plan also notes the county will finish the current fiscal year with a balance of about $24.5 million, instead of a projected shortfall of almost $40 million.

About $6.7 million of the fund balance would go to property tax relief.

The county enacted across-the-board departmental budget cuts of 7 percent to 10 percent – except for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department – to avert the projected deficit.

“It went away because we managed it away,” Huckelberry said.