Oro Valley staff outline proposal for use, commercial rental and telecom taxes, plus stormwater rate increase

David Gephard, a town staff member, presented possible new tax categories and fee changes to the Oro Valley Budget and Finance Commission on Aug. 19, describing the measures as options to address rising public-safety and pavement-preservation costs.

Gephard said the town is considering three tax categories not currently charged by Oro Valley: a use tax, a commercial rental tax and a telecom tax. He described the proposal as focused on capital funding and said staff’s intent is to direct new revenues toward capital needs such as a future police facility, police vehicles and road maintenance. “These new tax categories we are proposing… would be assigned for capital needs and capital purposes,” he said.

Why it matters: Gephard told the commission that public-safety costs have risen faster than the town’s revenue growth and that pavement-preservation costs have increased about 107 percent since 2021, forcing transfers from the general fund into the highway fund. He said local sales-tax growth has been essentially flat for the last three years and that Oro…