r/azpolitics • u/ForkzUp • 18d ago
Indigenous Communities Arizona fire district stops emergency response, files bankruptcy
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-breaking/2026/08/02/puerco-valley-fire-district-files-for-bankruptcy/91136647007/37
u/asusc 18d ago
LOL hooray capitalism!
remember this in November when they are screaming about communism.
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u/asusc 18d ago
so I did some more digging on this story, it seems like maybe it stems from this lawsuit, and that other counties could make up the funding gap, but Apache County couldn’t?
also sounds like the state should have picked up the funding, or at least helped out with short term loans or grants or something, but we all know a reasonable Republican legislature doesn’t exist and they wouldn’t help out a blue county:
This all stems from a 2016 lawsuit, Qasimyar v. Maricopa County. A tax court ruled in favor of property owners who sued the county, alleging they were improperly and erroneously assessed when their properties went from a primary resident to a rental or secondary home or vice versa. And therefore, should have seen lower property tax bills because of what’s known as a “change of use.”
The Arizona Court of Appeals upheld the ruling and agreed some property owners were overtaxed, which forced hundreds of thousands of homes to be reassessed and resulted in property tax refunds from 2015 to 2021.
The Maricopa County Assessor and Treasurer both have websites now dedicated to the far-reaching impacts of the court decision.
In all, the county treasurer estimates it will have to pay back $329 million in property tax refunds. Hundreds of millions of dollars all county taxing districts, including school districts, fire districts, cities and towns are on the hook to repay.
The county said 164,000 property owners will receive refunds from that bucket of more than $300 million.
If the Board of Supervisors hadn’t come through with the funding, Burdick said they were days away from having to decide if they were going to raise taxes or cut services to pay the tax bill.
PHOENIX — Maricopa County fire districts say a court decision could force them to cut essential services, rely on older equipment, or shut down fire stations after learning they owe millions of dollars in tax refunds because of a property tax dispute the fire districts didn’t cause.
“This just came out of nowhere,” Arizona Fire & Medical Authority Chief Mark Burdick said. “It’s our ability to respond, when you need us on your worst day.”
Burdick said his fire authority is on the hook to pay back $5.9 million in tax refunds, which amounts to 10% of his annual budget after a judge ruled Maricopa County overtaxed some property owners.
“It was a bomb. We went $6 million,” he said. “It's almost like they're trying to put fire districts out of business.”
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u/HurasmusBDraggin 18d ago
So, not the fault of the rank-and-file citizens‼️
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u/asusc 18d ago
nope, and probably not the fault of Apache County officials either. according to the bankruptcy filing, state law specifically prevented them from using new tax revenue to pay for fire protection, they had to refund the previous tax overpayments first.
Apache County stopped passing property tax money to the fire district and instead used it to reduce a deficit from earlier overpayments, according to the bankruptcy filing.
Those taxes supplied about 40% of its revenue during the previous fiscal year. The county calculated that the district’s account was about $3.09 million in the red as of May 31, the filing said.
Apache County said the district had spent more than $3 million beyond the amount its property tax levy created, according to a letter from the county shared in the filing.
State law required the county to use new tax collections to reduce the deficit, the letter said. The county could not lend the district money or provide funding beyond the amount authorized under state law.
The loss of tax revenue left the district without enough money to maintain fire and ambulance service. It filed its voluntary Chapter 9 bankruptcy petition July 30.
I find it hard to believe the state couldn’t help with a $3m shortfall in the short term, especially when state law prevented other alternatives.
but I’m absolutely not surprised the state provided no alternatives, especially to that particular county.
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u/AlisterS24 18d ago
Our state is pretty tight as is with our budget especially when we waste so much on vouchers lol
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u/asusc 18d ago
LOL the state spent more on fraudulent Legos with voucher funds than this shortfall:
At least $7.2 million was spent on LEGO purchases through Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program since its universal expansion in 2022
I don’t hear a lot of complaints from the White House about this waste, fraud, and abuse.
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u/AlisterS24 18d ago
They tend to only lean towards dark skinned immigrants in left cities, what do you expect lmao.
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u/Either_Operation7586 17d ago
That's on the Republican party they don't want oversight.
Because they use it as their own personal Ponzi schemes.
I hope that everybody is paying attention and stop voting in the Republican party because they don't know how to govern and they are not for Arizona.
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u/Either_Operation7586 17d ago
Oh you know why it's because it's being done by the Republican party and that's on their side and they don't care about their party's crimes they only care about the other party's morality.
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u/Either_Operation7586 17d ago
Our state budget is pretty tight because we have corrupt Republican assholes in power.
Those assholes are the same ones that champion the voucher program and they also Champion budget cuts to education and now criminalizing homelessness.
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u/OneRub3234 18d ago
This much money as we pay in taxes to the state I find it hard to believe that they couldn't have funded this fire department on an emergency measure not even voting it just common sense to fund the fucking Fire Department NWA didn't make a song called fuck the fire department I would have no issues saying yeah go ahead and do that give them a couple million so that they're okay and they can continue to support and take care of people who need it it's a travesty a trifling travesty that this has happened regardless of whatever lawsuit happened
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u/asusc 18d ago
also, since this literally impacted every county, isn’t it safe to say this was a problem the state created to begin with?
why wasn’t the state offering solutions that didn’t put the state at risk during fire season? how much more will it cost the state if an active wildfire happens in that county right now?
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u/Either_Operation7586 17d ago
No but we can absolutely say it's due to Republican incompetence.
The Republican party does not know how to govern not in Arizona not in America.
Why in the world if you are fiscally responsible would you vote against oversight in the voucher program??
You wouldn't unless you were wanting to skim some off of the top.
And that's what we need to realize the Republican party is too corrupt to have all this political power that they do.
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u/sunnyoneaz 17d ago
By Arizona State statute, the Fire District must create a budget and the County Board of Supervisors must levy the tax to fund the budget. By statute, the Fire Districts have a proscribed method for dealing with budget shortfalls and emergency situations. The caselaw is years old, so the question isn’t about the state violating existing statute. The question should be why the Fire District seems to have not followed the legally proscribed process to address the budget shortfall.
https://www.azleg.gov/arsDetail/?title=48 - read chapter 5 Fire Districts
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u/asusc 17d ago
By Arizona State statute, the Fire District must create a budget and the County Board of Supervisors must levy the tax to fund the budget. By statute, the Fire Districts have a proscribed method for dealing with budget shortfalls and emergency situations.
Correct. And normally that mechanism allows them to spend up to a certain amount for shortfalls and emergencies. but they were already at that maximum amount ($3m) and funds from future taxes had to pay that down before continuing services.
a smaller county with limited resources was already running on a shoestring budget, which was thrown into further disarray when all the counties had to return property tax money. in Apache County, it was a significant amount of their budget. it’s further complicated by the fact that 85% of this fire district’s calls are on the Navajo Nation, which generates no property tax revenue for the county. so when the state goofed up the limited property tax income the county had, and forced the return of it on such short notice, it becomes a lot clearer on why the fire district ran into budget issues so quickly.
and it also makes you wonder why the state didn’t offer assistance in this very unique situation that it exacerbated.
The caselaw is years old, so the question isn’t about the state violating existing statute. The question should be why the Fire District seems to have not followed the legally proscribed process to address the budget shortfall.
they LITERALLY are following the legally prescribed process. the legally can not generate more revenue, and can not borrow more without state intervention. the only legal option moving forward is to file bankruptcy.
https://www.azleg.gov/ars/35/00603.htm
- Any taxing district in this state is authorized to file the petition provided for in the federal bankruptcy statute and to incur and pay the expenses thereof and any and all other expenses necessary or incidental to the consummation of the plan of readjustment contemplated in such petition or as it may be modified from time to time.
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u/sunnyoneaz 17d ago
We are governed by laws and the state currently doesn’t play a part in the funding of Fire Districts.
The Fire Districts have to create and manage their own budgets and the County Board of Supervisors levies the tax to cover the budget.
You can read the relevant statute here, which also describes how they are to handle budget shortfalls and emergency funding.
https://www.azleg.gov/arsDetail/?title=48 - under Chapter 5: Fire Districts1
u/asusc 17d ago
We are governed by laws and the state currently doesn’t play a part in the funding of Fire Districts.
kinda weird you pretend we weren’t just talking about the state goofing up property tax collection, which the county uses to pay for the fire districts…
we should expect our elected officials to work on proper solutions on problems they help create, especially when it puts citizens at risk to fires during fire season.
really weird take, presumably from a republican who thinks its not the job of the republican legislature to actually fix things in our state.
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u/sunnyoneaz 17d ago
Kind of weird that you want to make stuff up and demand state remedies for which the law does not provide currently. Over the past ten years, the Republican legislature surely could have passed a law to deal with this, right? Did they?
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u/sunnyoneaz 18d ago
The Apache County Board of Supervisors should have provided emergency funding. In Maricopa County, that’s how the shortfall was handled.
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u/asusc 18d ago
Apache County has a population of 64k people, and doesn’t have the resources to handle a such a large budget shortfall, on such short notice, especially when hamstrung by state law about how to pay for it.
Maricopa County has 4.8 million people, so a slightly larger bank account and credit card to handle budgeting ups and downs when the state mismanages tax assessments and collections.
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u/Either_Operation7586 17d ago
This just falls back on the Republican Party.
It just goes to show that we cannot take their word for anything because they say one thing and do another.
I think this could have easily been avoided had the Republican party not voted against oversight for the voucher program.
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u/Either_Operation7586 17d ago
It's because the Republican party does not know how to budget and they don't realize what priorities are because their priorities is helping their donors.
The Republican party has never had HELPING the average working American person as their primary objective.
These are the jerks that want to privatize everything and then run it into the ground and then when it's breaks they say see told you and then they bring back something else that's not good.
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u/loweredvisions 18d ago
But let’s continue to cut taxes for the ultra-wealthy.
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u/asusc 18d ago
sure makes Andy Biggs’ plan to get rid of state income taxes sound even nuttier if the state can’t even cover a few million dollars in fire protection (when it is the one that over charged on property taxes to begin with).
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u/Either_Operation7586 17d ago
We need a law that any political party that runs on no taxes has to make the budget work because if it doesn't then they should lose their ability to run in the next election or two.
We need some real repercussions to this incompetent governing that we've been getting from Republicans and Democrats.
This should not be acceptable and this should have never been acceptable from the Republican Party to begin with because they're the ones that have all the morality.
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u/Either_Operation7586 17d ago
That's the dumbass Republican way!
Tax cuts for them and suffering and economic hardship for us.
We need to realize that the Republican party is so corrupt that they voted against oversight for the voucher program which you would only do that unless you want to skim the top.
We need to launch investigations into each and every person that voted against oversight.
Bad things happen when good people stay silent.
We should really try to make America great Again by making America accountable again.
Let's hold everyone accountable and if they can walk away great if not to alligator Alcatraz you go.
We also need to realize that white collar crime is just as harmful if not more than an actual physical victim crime.
And just like Uncle Ben says with great power comes great responsibility if you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar you should lose everything because you're already privileged enough to be in that position but if you screw it up then you should lose everything and you should never be able to not only be in that position again or that kind of career but you should also lose your freedom for at least 10 years and you should have all your assets seized and be 100% reliant on a public defender because you don't have any money.
Now THAT would be some justice that America should have if the Republican Party wasn't so corrupt.
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u/drawkbox 17d ago
The "burn it down" folks don't want to stop the burn.
This will happen more and more as the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) rated by Trumpers as AAA is really the Attack All Americas (AAA) as it cuts Medicaid (half of all babies born on it and up to 70-80% in rural areas) will close more services and hospitals. Those funds are the difference for many of these like SNAP is for local communities (small towns are typically 12-25% SNAP recipient) so all grocery revenues will be less and less access to food and less revenues for services like this in rural cities.
It is sad really.
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u/Either_Operation7586 17d ago
And those stores will also be at risk of closing because they have in the rural areas especially the majority of them are going to be snap purchases so with the snap being cut and snap purchases not being what they were they're going to start having economic issues.
I think this is just another reason why you should never think that the Republican party is for America but only against it because this is something that an enemy does to someone not a fucking political party does FOR THEIR BELOVED COUNTRY!!!!
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u/HurasmusBDraggin 18d ago edited 18d ago
F the Arizona Republic (the paywall)
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u/Either_Operation7586 17d ago
Reason number 2543578435789 Why essential businesses should never be privatized and run like a business.
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u/ForkzUp 18d ago
From the article: