Sat, Nov 22, 2008
 Having a neighborly chat are, from left, Jane Miller, with her dog Sirno, Arlene Zander and Judy Richards. The three women and Sirno are winter residents at the Far Horizons Tucson VIllage RV Resort on the East Side. Tucson's RV-space-rental tax was introduced in the late 1990s, and there is no longer an intense controversy surrounding it. Jill TOrrance / arizona daily star
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Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.27.2008
When Pima County implemented its RV-space-rental tax, recreational-vehicle owners around the country threatened to boycott Tucson.
Pima County's RV parks 10 years later have plenty of customers. It's the revenue from the tax that never materialized.
The 50-cents-a-day tax, originally predicted to bring in more than $800,000 a year, has generated a little more than $2 million total in the 10 years it has been in effect.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors adopted the tax in 1997 to help fund the Stadium District, which uses hotel-bed and car-rental taxes, RV surcharges, ticket sales and concessions to pay for the construction of Tucson Electric Park and run spring training.
The Stadium District has struggled to break even, and county taxpayers paid $6.3 million in 2004 and 2005 to offset the district's deficit.
If the RV tax had brought in the $8 million the county anticipated, it would have more than covered the difference.
Pima County is the only county in Arizona with such a tax, and the Legislature later revoked the ability of other counties to impose the tax.
The first winter the tax was in place, RV park managers around the Tucson area reported low occupancy rates, whereas those in Benson and Yuma were overflowing.
Sue Fuller, general manager of the Voyager RV Park, south of Interstate 10 on South Kolb Road, said she believes the damage was permanent.
"We lost people right off the bat, and I don't think they came back," Fuller said. "A lot of the people we lost, they found new winter homes, and they never came back."
But those people have been replaced by new retirees who don't know about the controversy involving the tax and come to Tucson for their own reasons.
And RV park managers don't go out of their way to educate new tenants.
"It's not as publicized now," said JoAnn Sanford, operations manager at the Far Horizons Tucson Village Resort on the East Side.
"When you quote your rates, you just say 'plus tax.' When they see what it's for, they don't like it, but it's not making people not come to Tucson. I hate to say it, but it hasn't affected us like we thought it would."
RV owners who choose Tucson often have family members here or friends from home who retired here. And Tucson has a slower pace than Phoenix, while offering more attractions than more rural destinations.
Jack and Linda Hyyppa of Bozeman, Mont., are spending their second winter in Tucson. They come to enjoy the weather and spend time with Linda Hyyppa's sister.
They usually spend six to seven weeks here. The tax costs them between $20 and $25 per season, but they hadn't even noticed it.
"It isn't really a consideration," Jack Hyyppa said. "I'm sure it's rolled into the rate."
Others notice, but come anyway.
"Tucson is one of the neatest places to come in the Southwest," said Howard Starck, a retired lumber dealer from Wyoming who has been living in Tucson full time in his RV for the last year and a half. "We have friends here, and the weather is great, and there's a lot to do."
He said he notices the tax, but it doesn't keep him away. "It's steep," he said. "We don't like to pay it, but we understand they have to have income."
That income has never been what was predicted. In 2004, the best year so far, the county collected just $216,000 in RV-space-rental tax toward the Stadium District's $3 million budget.
County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said the miscalculation was a rookie mistake.
"We never had any experience," he said. "When you have a new tax, and you have no historical basis, it's just an educated guess."
Park managers say the county misunderstood their business and could have made better calculations.
Owners of RVs and mobile homes with attached awnings or sheds and those considered "recreationalpark homes," which are more or less here permanently, don't pay the daily space rental tax. Instead they pay personal property tax, which goes into the county general fund.
In many large parks, those make up the majority of spaces. Voyager has 900 spots for park homes, which pay personal property tax, and just 600 for RV users, who pay the daily space-rental tax.
"We tried to tell them, but they didn't listen," said Sanford at Far Horizons. At the time the tax was implemented, just six of the park's 514 spots were for daily or weekly users. The park has fewer permanent residents today, but they still take up a majority of the spaces.
Despite the low revenue, Huckelberry said the county has no intention of getting rid of the tax, especially now that the Maricopa County Sports Authority is poaching Tucson's spring training teams. That authority is supported by state sales tax from Maricopa County stadiums and other taxes.
"Every little bit helps," he said. "It's even more vital now that every bit contribute because of our competitive disadvantage."
● Contact reporter Erica Meltzer at 807-7790 or at emeltzer@azstarnet.com.
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