
MOHAVE COUNTY – Complaints about taxation without service has prompted the Board of Supervisors to direct staff to investigate and report on the coverage area of the Mohave County Television District. Supervisor Ron Gould raised the issue following a Santa Fe Ranch property owner association resolution alleging its more than 2,700 members pay the county TV District tax but cannot get reception where they live outside Yucca.
“We should not be taxing people if we’re not planning on ever giving them service,” association member Tim Krug said during Tuesday’s board meeting in Kingman.
Deputy county attorney Ryan Esplin noted that being taxed without service is not unprecedented. He cited the example of public education.
“I have children that go to the school district but some of my neighbors don’t,” Esplin said. “They don’t get exempt from paying school taxes, property taxes, for schools because their children don’t go there. That’s not how it works.”
Esplin explained the law does not allow the county to redraw the TV District boundary to carve out unserved areas from being taxed. He also expressed skepticism that there’s any way to reduce or eliminate the TV District tax where property owners cannot receive programming.
Gould said it’s hard for the board of supervisors to decide anything without a clear picture of the TV District coverage area. He noted display of a map reflecting spotty reception in the Katherine Landing area is an illustration, but doesn’t answer questions regarding coverage elsewhere in a county that is the fifth largest in the nation.
“We need to figure out where we are serving and where is unserved and we either need to provide the service for the people that are paying for service or cease to tax them for a service they cannot receive,” Gould said. “It still begs the question do you disband the district over the injustice.”
Supervisor Hildy Angius noted that contemplation of eliminating the district caused great uproar years ago, shining light that many residents rely on it for television programming. Watson agreed fixed income elderly and other economically challenged residents cannot afford conventional cable and satellite service.
“The district provides many constituents vital service, vital information. And I for one am not in favor of changing it, nor am I in favor of any type of tax abatement,” Watson said, noting most property owners pay less than $10 per year to the TV District. “It’s such a small amount. I don’t see it being a huge issue.”
An executive with the company that maintains the county TV district translator system told the Board that additions of special equipment can expand coverage area and that installation of more sophisticated household antennas can also improve reception.
Funding for TV District improvements is in question as county officials said a budget surplus will be eliminated this year, leaving the system barely sustainable given the current tax rate.
- Dave Hawkins