Navajo County resident Jesse Valencia has been in conversations with Arizona legislators regarding redrawing of county lines. Valencia, founder of the proposed Sitgreaves County Project, explained, “The idea came from seeing that, according to the most recent census data, Navajo and Apache counties are two of the poorest counties in the Southwest. As I was researching and trying to figure out why, I noticed a discrepancy between property tax rates and median income. Income is low, while property tax rates are high.” He proposes splitting the counties into three separate counties to remedy this issue financially.
Distribution of county and state subsidies is Valencia’s main concern. “The largest recipients of county money are schools and highways and things like that, new county lines would be drawn around school districts. People down here are tired of having taxes raised. So they will reject a good, smart tax like the jail district tax on the last ballot. The idea is instead of trying to force this, and people continue to be mad, why not design new county boundaries that will benefit all three, where each is able to stand on its own feet without too much help from the state and be able to work within themselves toward their own futures. I thought, we decentralize the power structure of Navajo and Apache counties and divide them into something that actually works for the people who live there so there’s not a tug of war between the people.”
Another reason Valencia cites for the proposed split is emergency response, public safety and varying environmental needs. Valencia said, “In Apache County and southern Navajo County we deal with fires more often while central and northern Navajo County deals more with flood plain issues. You have this kind of thing spread out amongst this huge swath of land. Geographically, economically, culturally, the southern parts of these counties are so very different from the northern parts.”
Because state funded programs rely on population numbers to be distributed, Navajo County will gain HURF (Highway User Revenue Funds) money, Valencia explained. “Down here, we will lose HURF money and may have an increase in other federal funds, we are still working out those numbers. But, the point is, it will all be lose some, gain some.”
The boundaries for Navajo and Apache counties were decided in 1890 and according to Valencia, “In the last 130 years, the communities that have sprung up around the Little Colorado River and the Navajo and Hopi reservations, all of that has developed since the county was declared. So, all of these things that have developed are still based on maps from 1890.”
His proposal would designate Winslow, Holbrook, Joseph City and everything north as Navajo County, keeping the county seat in Holbrook and including parts of the Navajo and Hopi Reservations. The newly created county would be Sitgreaves County, consisting of Heber-Overgaard, Snowflake-Taylor, Concho, Round Valley, Alpine, Vernon, Show Low, Blue Ridge, McNary, Whiteriver and parts of the White Mountain Apache lands. The county seat would be in Show Low.
Apache County would retain its county seat at St. Johns and contain Concho, Vernon, Springerville, Eagar, Alpine, Nutrioso and Greer and parts of the surrounding reservations as well.
“There is a misconception, in my opinion, that dividing the counties up is a power grab,” said Valencia. “I disagree with this because the power will actually be retained more by the people who live in their respective areas. They won’t have to deal with what is going on in other areas. It is also a way to let the individual counties set their own property tax rates and to consolidate resources for their schools and infrastructure projects.”
Valencia is prepared for those who see his proposal as a potential loss of revenue for the northern part of Navajo County. “There will be losses, but there will also be gains. We are trying to figure out what those numbers will be. Right now, the plan as we have it meets all of the Arizona constitutional requirements for breaking up counties. Each county meets the population requirements and the private property requirements.”
Some of those requirements, found in Arizona Revised Statues (ARS) Title 11 are a population of at least three-fourths of one per cent of the total state population according to the most recent United States decennial census and at least one hundred square miles of privately-owned land.
“We are not going to rush in to this. It has been tried so many times before, but none of the other attempts were for the right reasons,” he said. “In the 1980s for example, a bill was passed by the legislature that was vetoed by Bruce Babbitt because it was racially based. Basically, voters in the south county wanted to force voters on the Navajo and Hopi reservations to be their own county.”
Following that, and the creation of La Paz County from Yuma County in 1983, Valencia said, “The Arizona government made it more difficult to create counties so that it doesn’t come at the cost of the Arizona taxpayers who had to supplement the poorly planned La Paz County.”
The process is a lengthy one. “We want to draft a bill in the next few years and I have been talking to legislators and senators and they want to see it happen. They see that it is a good idea.” He continued, “The A.R.S. says you can create a new county by legislative enactment, statewide initiative or countywide initiative. The rules are vague for legislative enactment, so we would have to include language in the bill that clarify those rules for new counties, while also passing the county bill.”
Valencia is currently addressing various city and town councils as well as the Navajo County Board of Supervisors with his idea. “We are getting a lot of support, but it is a heated thing. What I am trying to do right now, is just develop this idea, crunch the numbers and figure out how it will be best for all three newly formed counties.”
More information on Valencia’s proposal can be found on the project’s website at www.sitgreavescounty.com.
