Prop 401
FAQs and Important Voting Information PDF Download
Frequently Asked Questions
- Quartzsite, like all cities and towns in Arizona, is required to have a balanced budget where spending (expenditures) cannot exceed available revenues.
- Additionally, in 1980 Arizona voters approved a constitutional amendment designed to limit the annual expenditures of all Arizona cities and towns. The law requires that each municipality adopt a limit on its annual expenditures based on a formula that is set by the state. This is known as the state-imposed expenditure limitation.
- As Arizona municipalities began experiencing the growth that we still see today, with their revenues and budget demands growing, it became apparent that the state formula set no longer reflected the revenue and expenditure needs of a rapidly growing state.
- The Arizona Constitution was then amended to provide options to accommodate these growing financial needs. One of these options allows voters to authorize the Town Council to adopt an alternative method for setting the Town’s expenditure limit. This is known as the Alternative Expenditure Limitation.
- Expenditures cannot exceed the town’s expenditure limitation, thereby creating the required balance budget.
- No. The limitation applies only to expenditures of local revenue, as defined by Arizona Constitution, article IX, section 20(3)(d). Generally, local revenues include all monies a city or town receives such as tax revenues, fines, fees, or charges for services; however, the Constitution excludes some monies such as grants and aid from the federal government and certain revenues received from the State from the local revenue definition. Cities and towns must consider the source of the money used to make payments to determine its expenditures subject to the limitation.
- In accordance with ARS 41-1279.07(H), a city or town that exceeds its expenditure limitation without authorization will have the following amount of State income tax (urban revenue sharing monies) withheld based on the percentage of the excess expenditures.
- One-Time Override – Allows the town to exceed the state-imposed limitation for one year for a specific purpose.
- Capital Projects Accumulation – This project is most appropriate for communities where the state-imposed limitation is sufficient except in the area of capital outlays. This option is not currently being used by any Arizona municipalities.
- Permanent Base Adjustment – Allows a municipality to permanently adjust the state’s base expenditure amount based on current needs, rather than using the state-imposed limitation. Once approved by voters, it does not expire.
- Home Rule Option – Allows a municipality to set its own spending limitation based upon current and projected revenues and local service demands. It is effective for four years. At the end of the four-year term, if a new Home Rule is not approved by the voters, the expenditure limitation reverts to the state-imposed limitation.
- One-Time Override does not increase or decrease the revenues that the Town receives from sales tax and state shared revenues or from any other source.
- The One-Time Override has no impact on taxes or tax rates. It does not increase the Town’s sales tax rate or any other tax rate.
- The expenditure limitation was originally adopted in 1980 and the formula for the state limitation is based on revenues and population from 1979.
- While the state limitation for subsequent years permits increased spending limits using a population growth factor and an inflation factor, those factors are not calculated from actual revenues, population growth or inflation.
- When the state limitation formula was originally developed in 1980, Quartzsite had a population of 2,115 and revenues of $974,825.
- As the Town has grown, so have its revenues, operating costs, and demand for services. The 2020 US Census shows the Town at a population of 2,413 and it projects to receive approximately $7,117,472 in revenues during fiscal year 2022-2023.
- Proposition 401 will allow the town to exceed the state-imposed limitation by a specific amount in the fiscal year immediately following the election.
- The town’s resolution and ballot language should include the specific amount of additional expenditures that it is asking voters to authorize.
- The Town will lose the ability to set its budget based on current needs and revenues and will be required to limit Town expenditures to the state-imposed formula for at least two consecutive fiscal years (until it can be approved by the voters at another election).
- Projections indicate that approximately 15% or $750,000 of the Town’s overall budget for the next two years would have to be eliminated.
- Although the Town will still receive revenues approximating the estimates above, revenue amounts in excess of the state limitation will remain unavailable for two years, as state law will prevent the Town from allocating those funds to provide general government services.
- The Town proposes to place the proposal on November 7, 2023, at a Special Election.
- Registered voters will receive a voter information pamphlet with much of the material presented on Prop 401, One-Time Override.
- A Person, group or organization can file an “argument” (statement for or against the One-Time Override) to be published in the voter information pamphlet. Arguments must be submitted to the Town Clerk’s office on behalf of the Governing Body by October 5, 2023.
Important Voting Information
- The polls will be open on election day from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
- Anyone who is either physically or visually impaired or WHO IS UNABLE TO READ or understand the contents of the ballot may be accompanied into the voting booth by a person of his or her choice for the purpose of assisting with casting his or her ballot.
- Sample ballots may be brought to the polling place and may be taken into the voting booth on the day of election.
- Any qualified voter who at 7:00 p.m. is in the line of waiting voters shall be allowed to prepare and cast his or her ballot.
- Early voting begins October 11, 2023. An Early Ballot may be requested up to 90 days before the election by calling the La Paz County Recorder’s Office at (928) 669-6136. The last day to request an Early Ballot by mail is October 27, 2023. Please be advised that the U.S. Postal Service does not forward election mail. Any qualified elector may vote an Early Ballot in person until 5:00 p.m. on November 3, 2023, at the La Paz County Recorder’s Office located at 1112 Joshua Ave., Suite 205, in Parker, Arizona.
- Any elector prevented from voting at the polls as a result of an emergency occurring between 5:00 p.m. on October 27, 2023, and 5:00 p.m. on November 6, 2023, should contact the County Recorder at (928) 669-6136, for directions as to voting.
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In order to vote in this election, you must have been registered to vote and reside within the boundaries of the county on or before midnight , Tuesday October 10, 2023. If you do not know if you are qualified to vote, you should contact the County Recorder at (928) 669-6136.