The Urgency and Importance of “Home Rule”

By: Dr. Thea Wilshire, Councilwoman District 2 Globe

OK, some English please!  “Alternative Expenditure Limitation”?  Huh?  And, even the simpler “Home Rule” name doesn’t explain much on the surface.  So what exactly is this item and why is it on the Globe primary election ballot?

In 1980, Arizona voters approved a tax reform package that placed limits on expenditures for cities and towns.  This means that regardless of the money coming into the community or their actual needs, the city cannot spend over the state-imposed ceiling.  The limit is the community’s 1979-1980 budget with a small cost-of-living increase built in for each subsequent year.  However, the cost-of-living increases have come no where near to keeping pace with actual costs of supplies and services, so the limits set 30 years ago are now less tax reform and more economic shackles.  Fortunately, a back door was built into the legislation wherein local voters could approve an exception to state-imposed expenditure limitations and decide locally what is best for their own city or town.  This back door is lovingly referred to as “Home Rule.” 

If we pass Home Rule then we are allowed to expend the actual revenue that we receive to provide services to our residents.  Each year, we will be allowed to set our own expenditure limits after community input is received through a transparent budget and public hearing process.   Additionally, the city is required to have a balanced budget, so our expenditures are naturally restricted by our actual available revenues.  And, just to clear up a frequent misperception, Home Rule does not allow the city to raise or change the property tax or sales tax it already collects, rather it simply lets us spend what was already approved in the annual budget.

So, to make this more personal, let’s look at actual numbers for Globe.  Last year, our community budget was around $26 million which included about $1.5 million in our water bond revenue.  Because of the state mandate for a balanced budget and the subsequent outcome that we cannot spend more than is listed in our budget, our budget is usually expanded to make room for unexpected revenue sources like grants, bonds, or money received from court decisions or wildland firefighting.  However, if those funds don’t come in, then we can’t spend money we don’t have.  Consequently, the $26 million in our budget is really a “best case scenario”, but has never actually come in that high.  Our actual budget of what we bring in and what we spend is around $15 million a year.  [As an aside:  This number is impressively low for the number of services provided to our citizens.  The former city councils and city managers get credit for keeping us extremely lean fiscally.  There is not much “fat” to be trimmed from our daily operations!]  Now, if we pass the Home Rule Option, then we will be allowed to spend however much of our budget actually comes in (this year, it looks to be closer to $14 million, not $15 million).  However, if Home Rule does NOT pass, then the city can only expend the state-imposed limit of $7.8 million, EVEN IF WE GET IN MORE MONEY!  This would cripple our operations.  We cannot continue to provide the same level of city services at this limit, so we would have to make major cuts in ALL departments from public services like library and parks to more essential items like police, fire, water, trash, and roads.  We estimate we would have to lay off approximately 60 city personnel and completely close some of our departments.

So, if Home Rule seems like a “no brainer” choice, you might wonder, “Why is it on the ballot this year?”  Because the legislation requires that Home Rule be reviewed and decided again by local citizens every four years.  The City of Globe voters have approved the Home Rule Option every four years since 1980, as have 75 other Arizona communities as of 2009.  The residents of Globe are asked to again pass the Home Rule Option to allow us to locally decide what is best for Globe and not be shackled by state-imposed limits that take no account of our community’s service needs or income stream.

The City of Globe primary election will be entirely by mail this year.  The ballots will be mailed out on 2/10/10 and you will have until 3/9/10 to get them mailed back in.  Please stop and take just a minute to cast your vote and return your ballot.  I find it amazing how few people vote each year and how much power those few have to decide the fate of the entire city.  Be a part of those that make a positive difference!