ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Fifty-sixth Legislature

Second Regular Session

HB 2088: bond; override; contributions; contracts; prohibition

Sponsor: Representative Hendrix, LD 14

Committee on Regulatory Affairs

Overview

Prohibits an entity, that makes certain contributions promoting the issuance of a bond or passage of a budget override, from bidding on any subsequent contracts.

History

Municipalities, counties, school districts and other local governments may issue bonds to finance the cost of certain capital projects like building schools and highways. A bond is a debt security in which the purchaser acts as a money lender to the bond issuer in exchange for regular interest payments. A municipality or county must submit the question of whether to issue a bond to the qualified electors of that jurisdiction and disclose certain statutorily required information such as the purpose and maximum amount of the proposed bonds. Upon approval by the voters, bonds are repaid by the jurisdiction with interest using property tax monies (A.R.S. §§ 9-524, 11-264.01, US SEC).

Budget overrides also require approval by the voters and are similarly funded by local property taxes. While statute limits school district spending, upon approval by the qualified electors a school district may increase their budget by up to 15%. State and local governments are prohibited from using public resources to influence the outcome of bond and budget override elections and can be held civilly liable in specified circumstances (A.R.S. §§ 15-481, 16-192).

Provisions

1. Excludes entities that make contributions promoting the issuance of county or municipal bonds or the passage of budget overrides from bidding on any resulting contracts. (Sec. 1, 2)

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5. HB 2088

6. Initials DC/JH Page 0 Regulatory Affairs

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