Statutory levers
Nine numbers in statute decide this.
$5,489,639 of City of Safford's revenue arrives from the state each year. None of it is negotiated — it falls out of a handful of percentages and formulas, and this is what moving each one is worth.
What a 10% reduction in each lever costs this town
Urban Revenue Sharing percentage · currently 18%
The share of state income tax collections paid to cities. Raised from 15% to 18% in 2021, explicitly to offset the flat income tax — the League notes the increase was negotiated to minimise the loss, not to add money.
−$218,462
4.0% of state-shared
A.R.S. § 43-206 · Reproduces JLBC's published URS pool to the dollar in FY2026, FY2027 and FY2028.
State income tax collections · currently 100%
The pool is 18% of individual AND corporate income tax collections from two fiscal years earlier. Individual tax is roughly 74% of that base, so eliminating it entirely does not eliminate the distribution.
−$218,462
4.0% of state-shared
A.R.S. § 43-206, applied to Title 43 collections · Individual/corporate split taken from the JLBC FY2026 Baseline revenue table.
City share of the TPT distribution base · currently 25%
25% of the transaction privilege tax distribution base is paid to incorporated cities in proportion to population. Counties take 40.51% and the remainder funds specified state purposes.
−$155,203
2.8% of state-shared
A.R.S. § 42-5029 · Population-proportional distribution confirmed: every city above the URS floor receives an identical $151.12 per resident in the published FY2025 figures.
TPT collections in the distribution base · currently 100%
The pool cities draw from. Rate changes, exemptions and classification changes all move it. Note this is the distribution BASE, not total TPT collections — the two move together but are not the same number.
−$155,203
2.8% of state-shared
A.R.S. § 42-5029 · League control total for FY2025 city TPT: $900,000,000 exactly.
City share of the Highway User Revenue Fund · currently 27.5%
27.5% of HURF goes to cities and towns — half by statewide population share, half following gasoline supplied in the city's county. A further 3% goes only to cities above 300,000 people, which in Arizona means Phoenix, Tucson and Mesa.
−$102,111
1.9% of state-shared
JLBC 2025 Tax Handbook, HURF distribution · The county-gasoline half predicts that every city in a county receives the same HURF per resident. It holds for all 91 cities exactly.
HURF collections · currently 100%
Fuel taxes are roughly 45% of HURF and are levied per gallon, not as a percentage of price. That makes this the one stream that erodes with vehicle efficiency and electrification without anyone voting to cut it.
−$102,111
1.9% of state-shared
Motor fuel tax, use fuel tax, VLT, registration and carrier fees · JLBC 2025 Tax Handbook: HURF collections were $1.84bn in FY2025.
City share of the Vehicle Licence Tax · currently 24.6%
24.6% of vehicle licence tax goes to city and town general funds, and the statute is specific about how: monies go "to the incorporated cities and towns of the county in proportion to the population of each". County first, population second — so this is county money split locally, not a statewide pool.
−$73,189
1.3% of state-shared
A.R.S. § 28-5808 · That wording predicts one VLT rate per resident within each county. It holds in all 15 county groups exactly, with rates running 3.6x from $50.72 to $181.12 per resident.
Vehicle licence tax collections · currently 100%
VLT is assessed on a vehicle's depreciating value, so the base moves with what residents of the COUNTY drive and how new it is. It is also the largest single component of HURF at 33.7%, which means a change here moves two of a city's four streams at once.
−$73,189
1.3% of state-shared
A.R.S. § 28-5801, ad valorem on registered vehicles · JLBC 2025 Tax Handbook: VLT is 33.7% of HURF collections, the largest category.
The one lever that redistributes instead of scaling
A town is treated as having at least 1,500 residents for Urban Revenue Sharing. Nine towns are lifted by that floor today and every other city is diluted very slightly to pay for it. Changing it moves money between towns without changing the pool by a cent.
This town pays into the floor rather than drawing from it.
Abolishing it entirely would gain $2,363 a year.
Two streams depend on geography, not policy
Urban Revenue Sharing and the state sales tax are apportioned purely by population, so every city above the floor receives the identical amount per resident. The other two are not. Half the Highway User Revenue share follows gasoline supplied in each county, and vehicle licence tax goes, in the statute's own words, “to the incorporated cities and towns of the county in proportion to the population of each” — county first, population second.
So roughly a third of what this town receives from the state is set by where it sits rather than by anything it does or decides. The two are not the same mechanism, either: they rank the counties differently, because gasoline supplied and vehicles registered are different things.
$99
HURF per resident here, FY 2024-25
$76
the lowest rate any Arizona city receives
9.8x
between the highest and lowest county rates
Every city in this county receives the same $99.43 of road money and $71.26 of vehicle licence tax per resident: Pima, Safford, Thatcher. That uniformity is how both formulas were verified — it holds for all 91 cities, in all 15 counties, exactly.