Op-Ed By L. Scott Bennett, Graham County Attorney
As Graham County Attorney, I spend my days working alongside our sheriff’s deputies, courthouse employees, and prosecutors to keep this county safe.
I see firsthand what they need to do the job well. I also see how badly our county’s hands are tied by a budget rule written before many of our staffers were born.
Graham County’s base expenditure limit was set in 1979-1980. That’s not a typo.
For nearly half a century, the maximum amount our county has been legally allowed to spend each year has been anchored to a budget from a different era: before cell phones, before modern crime labs, and before the equipment, training, and staffing that public safety requires today.
I wish more than anything we could still run the Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Office and courthouse on a 1980s budget. But that world is gone, and pretending otherwise puts our community at risk.
This November, voters have a chance to fix our outdated spending limit with Proposition 404.
I want to be clear: Prop 404 does not raise taxes. Sales and property tax rates will remain the same. You won’t be charged a single additional dollar.
What it does is allow Graham County to actually spend money it has prudently saved.
Through years of careful, conservative budgeting, the county has built up cash reserves in our General Fund. Under the outdated 1979-1980 spending cap, we are barred from using much of it, even for urgent needs like public safety equipment, courthouse repairs, and infrastructure.
Left unaddressed, the county would be forced to borrow and pay interest on projects we could otherwise pay for outright, causing needless cost to taxpayers.
Two projects illustrate what’s at stake. Our over 100-year-old historic courthouse needs to be renovated and expanded to ensure it remains the chief functioning courthouse in the county. At the fairgrounds, the county aims to improve an aging watering system and add landscaping and soccer fields. We have funding saved for both projects; we simply need your permission to spend it.
We are hardly alone in doing this. Greenlee, Maricopa, Coconino, Yavapai, La Paz, Apache, and Navajo counties have all adjusted their expenditure bases to meet the growing needs of their communities, and 84 of Arizona’s 91 cities and towns have done the same.
Graham County shouldn’t be left behind, especially when public safety is on the line. I urge you to join me in voting “yes” on Prop 404.
