The budget in Maricopa County will presumably go down by 11% in fiscal year 2025.
A decrease in the budget compared with the current fiscal year is largely attributed to less “one-time spending” and a decrease of $32.7 million in retirement costs. In total, the difference between fiscal year 2024 and 2025 was over $493 million. The budget totals at roughly $3.87 billion, with 47.6% going toward public safety and 25,78% going toward health, welfare, and sanitation.
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The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors elected Supervisor Jack Sellers to be its next chairman.
As Maricopa County is considered the nation’s “second largest voting jurisdiction” and is extremely competitive, Sellers said he’s focused on election operations this year.
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Following the expulsion of Republican State Rep. Liz Harris (R-Chandler) from the state House, it’s now up to a mix of local and county officials to decide who will ultimately be her replacement.
Republican precinct committeemen in Legislature District 13 will choose three names to give to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who will have the final say in picking one of the three to fill Harris’s now vacant seat.
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The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to move forward with consideration of a proposal to give themselves salary increases of up to 45 percent, even as the county, located just outside of Washington, D.C., faces a shortage of police in the midst of a crime surge.
With inflation still high, county residents are facing real estate taxes that have risen 7 percent on average. In addition, Virginia counties assess the value of personal vehicles and send “personal property tax” bills that residents must pay each year. These bills are at record levels due to the high values of used vehicles.
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Arizona State Rep. David Cook (R-Globe) announced Tuesday that his letter asking Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) for her legal opinion on the Rio Verde Foothills (RVF) area water situation.
“I’m grateful to the Attorney General for this informative response clarifying a county board’s legal authority in this matter,” said Cook in an update emailed to the press. “I believe this could be immensely helpful in the effort to provide relief for Rio Verde residents who continue to struggle without a reliable point of access to water for their homes and families. I will continue working with the residents and other parties until a comprehensive solution is in place.”
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Pima County announced Wednesday that its board of supervisors has settled on a new lease agreement with aerospace firm World View following a legal defeat from the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute (GI).
“This revision of the World View lease should put to rest years of legal wrangling over how Arizona counties can participate in economic development activities and business retention. Having prevailed on three of Goldwater’s four claims, and Goldwater on the fourth, we and all the other counties in the state now know where the lines are drawn, which is the silver lining in this costly dispute,” said County Administrator Jan Lesher in a statement shared with the press.
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A lawsuit filed Friday by Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake contesting the results in the November 8, 2022, election in Maricopa County exposes, among other things, the complexities of the process for mail-in and drop-box ballots and the county’s reliance on a third-party vendor for essential election functions.
The 70-page complaint filed by Lake named Democratic gubernatorial opponent Katie Hobbs who is the Secretary of State of Arizona who certified the election in her favor on December 5, as well as Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer as an officer in charge of elections, Maricopa County Director of Elections for Election Day and Emergency Voting Scott Jarrett and the five members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
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The office of Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, now the governor-elect, threatened the Mohave County Board of Supervisors with legal action and criminal referral unless they certified the 2022 vote in their county.
Mohave County waited until Nov. 28, the deadline for Arizona counties to certify, to vote on the certification of its election because of the host of issues that plagued Election Day in Maricopa County, casting a cloud over Hobbs’ razor-thin victory in the gubernatorial race over GOP nominee Kari Lake, the consistent leader in pre-election opinion polling.
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Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake released an update Monday telling her followers that she is not backing away from her fight for the governor’s office and election reform in the state.
“While we come together on this unifying issue of restoring honesty to our elections, rest assured, Arizona, nothing will stop me from putting everything I have into reforming elections here in Arizona and in America,” Lake said.
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Election results are being challenged in Maricopa County, but the results have been certified.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors met on Monday to certify the Canvass of the 2022 November General Election.
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The Cochise County Board of Supervisors in Arizona voted 2-1 to delay the certification of the 2022 election results Monday, which may result in a lawsuit from the state.
Arizona’s deadline for counties to certify election results is Nov. 28 and Cochise County may be sued for missing the deadline. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to have another meeting Friday and has demanded the state of Arizona prove that voter tabulation machines were certified for accuracy, local media reports.
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