During the 2018 Sedona municipal elections, Home Rule vs. Permanent Base Adjustment became a hotly-debated issue with Home Rule prevailing at the voting booth by 67.32% in August.
But now the Sedona City Council is taking a longer look at the pros and cons of each to determine what’s best for the city’s financial future.
Finance Director Cherie Wright appeared before council on Tuesday, April 23, to discuss the issue and the plan to establish a citizen committee to evaluate the possibility of the city moving from operating under Home Rule to a possibly a PBA. During council’s January retreat, it identified evaluation of the city’s expenditure limitation options as a high priority.
Wright said the plan is to have a committee made up of five to seven people with their first meeting set for June and following sessions taking place every four to six weeks. They would then present their findings to council in January of next year.
In her report, Wright explained the difference between Home Rule and a PBA.
- Home Rule: The Arizona Constitution allows a city or town to adopt an alternative expenditure limitation, aka Home Rule, with voter approval. The Home Rule option is free from any ties to the state-imposed expenditure limitation. The annual adopted budget becomes the alternative expenditure limitation for the city or town.
Constitutionally allowable exclusions apply only to entities bound by the expenditure limitation. However, a city or town under Home Rule may use any exclusions specifically identified in its voter-approved Home Rule proposal. The city of Sedona has not previously included any exclusions in the ballot language.
When Home Rule is adopted, it remains in effect for four years. Following the fourth year, the state limit is re-imposed unless the Home Rule alternative, or another expenditure limitation option, is approved.
- Permanent Base Adjustment: The Arizona Constitution allows a city or town to permanently adjust its base limit with voter approval. The PBA applies to all future years; however, voters may adopt additional adjustments.
Once a PBA has been implemented and the city or town is operating under the new base, the constitutionally allowable exclusions apply.
Since the city’s first Home Rule election in 1990, the voters have approved e a c h Home Rule option except once, in 1994. In the last three elections, more than two-thirds of the voters have approved the Home Rule option. The Home Rule option approved last year is in effect through Fiscal Year 2022-23.
In November 2018, for the first time in Arizona history, a citizen-initiated PBA was placed on the ballot but it failed with 63.4% of the votes going to retain Home Rule.
No council members will sit on the citizen committee. Wright said two experts on PBA have agreed to speak to the committee.
Council asked that they be allowed to sit in on those presentations or have those guests speak before council.
“This is not a sleepy little town where we’re going to have the same budget every year,” Mayor Sandy Moriarty said. “I don’t see that it’s going to change any time soon. Yes, we could have a recession in the future but I don’t think it will be on the scale of the last one.
“But I am hopeful that we are in a mode now where we’re going to do what we can to mitigate traffic and handle affordable housing and whatever else might come up in the process while not going through an election every four years to figure out where we’re going.”
Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 122 or by email at reland@larsonnewspapers.com
