Tax Amnesty Nets Phoenix Promises to Pay $1 Million in Late Taxes

The first month of amnesty for businesses with delinquent tax bills netted the city of Phoenix $1 million. Sort of. The 190 businesses that took advantage of the program through May 15 promised to send their share of sales to Phoenix over the next six months. We'll see how much...

By Ray Stern

June 2, 2009

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The first month of amnesty for businesses with delinquent tax bills netted the city of Phoenix $1 million. Sort of.

The 190 businesses that took advantage of the program through May 15 promised to send their share of sales to Phoenix over the next six months. We'll see how much change actually falls in the net.

Businesses owe more than $5 million in taxes, based on returns that were filed but not paid, says the city.

Phoenix hopes to collect another million bucks by June 15, the end-date of the amnesty.

Meanwhile, the city is fighting a court battle to give away $97 million in tax subsidies to the CityNorth development.

Maybe if we'd studied harder in economics class, this would all make sense.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.