48-2223. Tax levy for current expenses
A. The board of directors of a health service district, at the time of certifying
the amount required for payment of principal and interest on bonds, may certify to the
board of supervisors the amount necessary to maintain and operate the health service
system of the district during the ensuing year, and to defray all other expenses
incidental to the exercise of powers granted by this article, together with an estimate
of the revenue which will be received from rentals and service charges. In that event,
the board of supervisors, at the time of levying county taxes, shall levy and cause to be
collected in the manner prescribed by law for county taxes, a tax on real property within
the health service district based on the current assessment roll, sufficient to pay the
amount certified, less the amount estimated to be received from rentals and service
charges. The levy for operational purposes shall not exceed seventy-five cents per one
hundred dollars of assessed valuation except for a district that provides for ambulance
service or a combined medical clinic and ambulance service as prescribed by section
48-2209.
B. The board of directors of a health service district may certify to the board of
supervisors an amount to levy on all taxable property within the district for the purpose
of funding the operation and maintenance of ambulance service or combined medical clinic
and ambulance service that is owned or operated by the district or to pay the cost of an
ambulance service contract entered into pursuant to section 48-2209. The amount of the
levy necessary for the operation and maintenance of the ambulance service, if any, shall
be separately stated in the levy. Before the initial imposition of such a tax, a
majority of the qualified electors voting in an election conducted in the same manner
provided in section 48-2213 must approve the initial imposition. The election must be
held on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November as prescribed by section
16-204, subsection B, paragraph 1, subdivision (d). The levy under this subsection for
operation of ambulance service pursuant to this subsection shall not exceed seventy-five
cents per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation, or one hundred thousand dollars,
whichever is less. The one hundred thousand dollar limit in this subsection shall be
adjusted annually from a 1991 base year according to the health services component of the
metropolitan Phoenix consumer price index published by the bureau of business and
economic research, college of business administration, Arizona state university or its
successor.
C. The tax, when collected, shall be paid into the county treasury to the credit of
the operating fund of the district, and the board of directors may order expenditure of
the fund for the purposes for which levied. Payments from the operating fund shall be
made upon claims allowed by the board of directors prepared, presented and audited in the
same manner as claims against the county.
D. Not less than twenty nor more than thirty days prior to making the certification
to the board of supervisors provided by subsections A and B of this section, the board of
directors shall publish in a newspaper of general circulation in the district an itemized
statement of the amounts proposed to be certified, and the statement shall contain notice
of a meeting to be held by the board of directors prior to the time for the
certification. At that meeting, any owner of real property within the district may
appear and present objections to any item of the amount proposed to be certified.
E. If a district lies in more than one county the amount necessary to maintain and
operate the health service system of the district during the ensuing year shall be
apportioned and the tax levied and collected in the same manner as established in section
48-2220, subsection E.
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