The Arizona Republic Editorial board
The Central Arizona Project board faces an unpleasant choice today:
Does it increase property taxes now, or wait a few years and impose exorbitant water-rate increases on customers?
Either way, water will cost more in central and southern Arizona. It makes more sense to prepare now, with a property-tax increase of 4 cents on every $100 of assessed valuation, or $4 for every $100,000 of a home’s value.
That would take the tax rate to the maximum allowed by state law, 10 cents. It’s enough to sock away about $100 million before big bills involving the Navajo Generating Station start rolling in. About one-fourth of the electricity generated at the plant moves water from the Colorado River through Central Arizona Project canals to Phoenix and Tucson.
