Photo by || Getty Images
Gov. Ducey and GOP legislative leaders haven’t appointed new members, leaving cities and businesses in the lurch.
By Tracy Abiaka || Arizona Mirror
The failure of Gov. Doug Ducey and Republican legislative leaders to appoint members to an obscure but technically important board that considers tax issues is causing big headaches for local governments trying to administer their tax codes.
And state auditors say that the unwillingness to fill vacancies on the board — which hasn’t met for more than three years because it can’t muster a quorum — calls into question whether the commission should continue to exist.
The Arizona Auditor General issued a scathing report this month on the failings of the Arizona Municipal Tax Code Commission. State auditors found that the commission has been unable to meet for three years because it doesn’t have enough members to make a quorum. That means, they wrote, that the commission “has not met its statutory purpose to review, hold hearings on, and approve or deny amendments to the Model City Tax Code,” a uniform sales and use tax act that provides Arizona city and towns the option to exempt certain taxes.