By Steve Chucri, Maricopa County Supervisor | Arizona Capitol Times
I’m fortunate to have many great friends and colleagues at the Capitol and I’m pleased to continue to work with the Capitol community in new ways as an elected official of Maricopa County. Because the county’s financial decisions impact millions of people in a variety of important ways, I wanted to share my process in working through budget decisions since taking office in January.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors recently adopted the budget for the 2014 fiscal year. First and foremost, our $2.2 billion general fund operating budget is actually lower than last year’s, by some $89 million.
Secondly, it comes with an actual reduction in county-controlled property taxes, roughly $32 million less than what the county collected last year. Moreover, Maricopa County remainsfree of general obligation debt.
