A veto of a bill designed to lower the tax burden on homeowners with large plots of land won’t end a Phoenix Republican’s efforts to get the legislation passed.
The bill aimed to correct a deficiency in the tax code that allowed county assessors to tax large plots of land at two separate rates.
“It will make sure that residential property owners are taxed at the residential property tax rate for acreage more than one acre,” Rep. Nancy Barto, the legislation’s sponsor, said. “You would think that’s a no-brainer… yet county assessors have been taxing at the vacant land rate for anything over an acre.”
While residential property is taxed at 10 percent, vacant land is taxed at 16 percent. Barto, R-7, said people who own several acres of land could potentially be charged thousands of dollars too much in taxes, even though the land is not being used for any other purpose.
In her veto, Gov. Janet Napolitano said there was a loophole in H2434 that would have allowed a developer to pay lower taxes on vacant land merely by placing a temporary residence on the property and signing an affidavit stating the parcel will not be subdivided for other purposes.
Napolitano said the language in the bill to allow the affidavit, which was added in the Senate, “is not in the best interest of our counties or our state.” She said the bill before the Senate amendment “was less objectionable.”
Following that cue, Barto says she is going to try to amend a bill still moving through the legislative process to include the original language of H2434, in the hopes she can get the legislation signed this session.
“This is an important issue and a lot of people are excited about it,” Barto said. “I don’t want to let them down.”