Most local builders and developers suddenly dropped their opposition to the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan in 2004 and decided to back a $164 million county proposal to buy vacant land for the plan. 

And although that decision has worsened the impact of the national mortgage crisis here, many of the same business leaders have ensured the local economic slump will continue for at least four more years.

Industry officials told me in 2004 they had reached “an understanding” with County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry under which Pima County would essentially leave them alone to reward their policy shift.

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That year, 20 percent of the county’s registered voters approved the vacant-land bonds by a 2-1 margin, but it has become obvious county officials had no intention of leaving builders and developers alone.

Although county supervisors don’t provide water to anyone, they’ve used water and the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan to justify obstructing or denying new developments in unincorporated areas.

A few developers have persuaded Sahuarita, Oro Valley and Marana to annex their land. Others have canceled local projects and decided to build in Pinal, Santa Cruz or Cochise counties.

Nevertheless, Democratic Supervisors Richard Elías and Ramón Valadez collected enough campaign money from builders, developers, planners, engineers, land attorneys and others since 2007 to scare off opposition for Elias and leave Valadez with only token primary opposition in this year’s elections.

The third Democrat, Supervisor Sharon Bronson, raised enough to win a primary victory over Donna Branch Gilby and decisively outspend her general election opponent, Republican Barney Brenner.

County Supervisor Ann Day collected what she needed to survive a strong primary challenge from Joe Higgins. Fellow Republican Ray Carroll had no opposition this year.

Unless Brenner overcomes big odds in Tuesday’s (Nov. 4) election to give Republicans a 3-2 board advantage, the business community can expect four more years as a favorite target for Huckelberry and the Democratic majority.

It won’t be pretty for businesses - or for taxpayers.

Huckelberry wants the board to nearly double current housing impact fees of about $4,500 per home in unincorporated areas to at least $8,800.

But supervisors voted last year to set the impact fees at $15,000 or more in some areas, depending on what roads and sewers already exist near proposed developments.

Bronson supported the $15,000 fees for new homes southwest of Tucson in her own district. She also supports Huckelberry’s latest proposal to raise impact fees elsewhere.

Brenner opposes them.

The Arizona Daily Star reported recently that Pima County’s budget has increased 94 percent to almost $1.4 billion this fiscal year, from $710 million in 1998. Homeowners’ average county tax bills are up 101 percent to $945 from $470.

The official inflation rate has risen 34.5 percent during that time.

Bronson has criticized Brenner for urging supervisors to delay selling new bonds to buy more vacant land. Her radio commercial on the topic accuses him of wanting the board to ignore “the will of the people” who approved the bonds.

But she didn’t raise the same cry when she and her fellow Democrats stole $10 million from the 1997 county bond election to widen 22nd Street between Park Avenue and Interstate 10 so the money could go for decorative street projects in and around South Tucson.

Nor did Bronson protest Huckelberry’s recent decision to halt work on the joint City-County Courts Building voters approved four years ago.

This is not the time to sell more bonds and raise tax rates for all county taxpayers to buy vacant land in a county where only 13 percent of the land is privately owned and 87 percent is tax-exempt.

Pima County officials love to sell new bonds as soon as old bonds are retired. They hope you won’t notice your taxes didn’t go down when the old bonds were paid off.

With the next supervisors’ election four years away, the board majority won’t worry about any consequences when they raise county property taxes next year. 

 Contact Steve Emerine or e-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Emerine, a Tucson resident since 1960, has run Steve Emerine Strategic Public Relations since 1994. He is a former local newspaper reporter, editor and columnist and served as Pima County Assessor from 1973 to 1980. He is a regular Monday guest on the John C. Scott radio talk show, which airs from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from noon to 1 p.m. weekdays on The Voice KVOI 690-AM. This column appears weekly in Inside Tucson Business.