Cochise County adopts tentative budgets for six rural street-light districts

The Cochise County Board of Supervisors, sitting as the boards of directors for multiple light improvement districts, adopted tentative budgets for fiscal year 2025–26 for six rural street-light districts on Tuesday, June 10, approving each measure by voice vote, 3-0.

County staff told the board the budgets pay utility bills for street lights in the districts and that voter-approved reserves can cause a district’s tax rate to fall even when utility costs rise. Members of the public used the meeting’s public-comment period to criticize county planning and zoning enforcement and to raise concerns about large corporate projects and potential safety issues tied to utility-scale solar.

County administrative staffer Miss Gilman explained that the board was acting in its capacity as the light improvement-district board of directors and that the districts were set up by voters to pay a secondary property tax specifically to keep street lights on. “These are ballot approved measures that were voted on by the locals in these specific districts to tax themselves, to put up street lights,” Gilman said. She added that the county’s role is to review and approve budgets and to pay the utilities; dissolving a…