Maricopa County is planning to slash its property tax rate for residents. The Board of Supervisors says the cut, included in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, is aimed at keeping homeowner expenses manageable.

Marx, Lenin and Engels “struck gold” with progressive tax rates. Progressive rates allow government to “hide the ball.” Those taxpayers in the lower tax brackets believe they pay little or no tax. So, they are ambivalent about government taxing the “rich.” In fact, the “poor” might believe that the “rich” need to pay more; unfortunately, that understanding is flawed.

*School districts may have a primary and secondary tax rate, which are combined for this graphic. Tax rate is per $100 of assessed valuation

“Oh, there they go again!” Ronald Reagan’s words echoed through my mind when I read the recent letter: “Dispelling one of the GOP’s myths”. The letter claimed that the GOP believes “revenue goes up when taxes go down”. The actual claim however, is “revenue goes up when tax RATES go down”.

Just what is a “tax cut” or a “tax increase”? If we lower the income tax rate, as President G. W. Bush did, it is advertised as a “tax cut”. Looking at the actual results however reveal that it indeed was a “tax increase.” 

Tempe homeowners who open their next property tax statement could suffer sticker shock when they see their rate has climbed about 28 percent.

The Apache Junction Unified School District has announced an overall school tax rate of $4.23 for the 2010-11 fiscal year. The rate is a decrease of $0.01 from 2009-10 and marks the 14th consecutive year the district has seen an overall tax reduction, according to a district news release.

The Mesa City Council on Wednesday approved a multimillion dollar amount and the rate to be levied on the November 2008 voter-approved secondary property tax. For fiscal year 2009-10, Mesa plans to raise $14.1 million. The money collected would go toward paying for police and fire capital projects as well as street improvement projects.

 Queen Creek will keep a property tax rebate the state says residents should have. Commercial growth in town could have let Queen Creek drop its tax rate for individual property owners and collect the same amount of money next year. Instead, the town will keep the rate steady so it can collect more cash to pay for public safety, said Assistant Town Manager Patrick Flynn.

The Gilbert Town Council could vote Tuesday to raise the sales, rental and use tax rates in order to bring in more money, and the town's 1,200 employees probably will not be furloughed during the upcoming fiscal year.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors set the tax rate for property owners on Monday, touting it as the lowest rate in 29 years.

Tempe residents value the quality of their lives and have traditionally chosen to invest financially to create and maintain that quality. Because of our willingness as a community to invest in each other, we have a city that provides among the best municipal services. While enjoying these amenities, Tempe remains among the three least expensive Valley cities in which to live and maintains excellent bond ratings.

Chandler homeowners are not likely to see an increase in their tax rate with the passage of the school district budget Wednesday night.

Gilbert county island residents who have been without fire service will pay $159 per $100,000 of their home valuation for fire protection from Gilbert — an amount arrived at by a three-man arbitration panel that resolved a nearly three-year dispute Thursday.

The primary tax rate for Pinal County property owners would drop to the lowest level in 30 years under a tentative budget approved by county officials.

Scottsdale Unified School District taxpayers will see their tax rate drop about 76 cents next year.

The Queen Creek Town Council on Wednesday set the town’s first primary property tax rate at $1.95 per $100 of assessed valuation.