Fall hits Payson Photographer Ralph Roberts this week captured fall color on the East Verde River at the end of Cracker Jack Road. He predicted the cottonwoods and sycamores will peak around the second week in November. He said early morning remains the best time to get a shot overlooking the meander of the river. He noted, “I feel most folks don’t realize that after a three-mile drive and crossing the Verde, the road is terrible with numerous rocks and ruts so most folks give up. However to the adventurer, a half mile more reveals the stunning beauty of the East Verde along the Cracker Jack Mine Road. This is autumn’s last awesome show of spectacular color.” The aspen and maples atop the Rim have largely finished their display.
PAYSON ROUNDUP
ARIZONA NEWSPAPERS AND NATIONAL LOCAL MEDIA ASSOCIATIONS’ NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR
TUESDAY | NOVEMBER 1, 2016 | PAYSON, ARIZONA
payson.com
Insurance furor Longhorns Nail It
Override money goes to teachers by
by
The newswires have exploded with the news that premiums the federal Affordable Care Act exchanges will increase by an average of 25 percent nationally and as much as 119 percent in Arizona. The increase will mostly affect people who don’t qualify for tax credits and subsidies through the exchanges, based on family income. The federal government claims that tax subsidies will help prevent most people from seeing a significant increase, since 70 percent of people covered through the exchanges get some sort of subsidy. However, one local insurance agent has had calls from many who fall outside the parameters to qualify for tax subsidies. Still others qualify for subsidies, but not enough to make a difference. The Department of Health and Human Services
Affordable Care Act premiums soar – but so do the subsidies
Peter Aleshire
• See Override, page 5
Michele Nelson
roundup staff reporter
roundup editor
The Payson Unified School District has spent every penny of a voter-approved, $1.2 million budget override on teachers and classrooms, Finance Director Kathy Manning reported last week. The money represents roughly 8 percent of the district’s annual budget and this year supported 23 teaching positions. The teaching positions supported included: • 15 positions to teach technology, music, physical education, reading, writing and math. • 6 positions to reduce class sizes. • 2 positions to support advanced classes, like advanced placement courses. “When you go out for an override,” explained Super intendent Greg Wyman, “you have to tell the community what you’re going to spend the money on. This reassures them we’re spending the money on what we said we were going to spend it on when the override passed.” School district budgets have gotten so complicated that at times the school board members themselves struggled with the different categories — and the accompanying mandates. The state overhauled the school financing system some years ago, after a group successfully sued the state for wide disparities in per-student spending between school districts, depending on the value of the local property tax levy. The state took over the school financing system, providing equalization funding that shifted property tax money from rich districts to poor districts like Payson. The system allows voters to approve a property tax surcharge to provide money over and above what the state gives the district. Payson voters have repeatedly approved that budget override, providing extra money for operations. Some other districts have also approved overrides to pay for capital spending, which hikes local property taxes for facilities. That has proved crucial for some district, since the state has all but eliminated money for new construction. Payson has not sought a capital improvement override for facilities. However, Payson is still paying off a voter-approved bond issue that dates back nearly eight years — and will continue for another seven years. That bond issue paid for a host of specific improvements, including the
75 CENTS
• See Insurance costs, page 8
College progresses, but still no partner by
Alexis Bechman
roundup staff reporter
Keith Morris/Roundup
No. 8 Payson takes on No. 9 Florence in the opening round of the AIA Class 3A Volleyball State Championship at 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4 at Phoenix Camelback High School. The first three rounds will be played at Camelback High. The winner plays in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. against the winner of the first-round match between No. 1 Phoenix Northwest Christian and No. 16 Queen Creek American Leadership Academy. The semifinal match for the winner of that side of the bracket is set for 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5. The other semifinal begins at 10:30 a.m. The final takes place at 7 p.m. Saturday at Phoenix North High School. Also, the Longhorns football team gets a chance to avenge a tough loss when they return to Snowflake to take on the No. 2 Lobos in the first round of the AIA Class 3A Football State Championship at 6 p.m. Saturday. See page 15 for more details.
Fires protect communities by
Peter Aleshire
Architects and planners for a proposed four-year college campus in Payson met with town officials Wednesday to go over preliminary phase I plans. Project leaders hope to have an academic building and two dorms built by the fall of 2018 for the first wave of students and classes. For years, project leaders have struggled to make progress on the long-awaited campus. It took years to acquire the 253-acre site from the U.S. Forest Service, secure donors and adequate funding, Artist’s rendering work through Rim Country University Academic Hall Southwest the maze of legal work, design the site and now, sign on a university partner. Gary Cordell, Rim Country Educational Foundation president, said Arizona State University, the long-anticipated partner, has yet to sign a deal. There is no word that another college is close to signing a contract with the Foundation and Rim Country Educational Alliance, separate legal entity.
• See Work continues, page 3
One scary
weekend
roundup editor
The Forest Service will burn more than 3,000 acres this week in the Payson and Young ranger districts in an effort to thin dangerously overgrown forests. The fires near Young and along the Control Road near Payson will generate smoke that may alarm residents and require motorists to drive carefully. Crews will stop setting fresh fires by 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and post warning signs on affected roads, both because of the danger posed by obscuring smoke and fire crews working along the side of the road. Fire crews will set a 1,262-acre broadcast fire treatment in the Pyeatt Draw area south of Forest Road 198, west of Forest Road 433, and north of Pyeatt Draw Creek Monday through Friday. During the day, smoke will
• See Controlled burns, page 5
THE WEATHER
volume 26, no. 89
Outlook: Sunny today with a high of 68, low of 40. Temps in the low 70s through the rest of the week with a chance for rain beginning Wednesday evening through Saturday. See page 8
See our ad and upcoming events on page 16
The Halloween festivities this weekend started on Friday night with a costume party at the Buffalo Bar and Grill, continued Saturday with a haunted house at the high school and the big parade and festival in Tonto Basin and continued on through Payson’s Trunk or Treat party on Main Street.