Contributed article
SAFFORD — Today, a coalition of local citizens, business, and community leaders from across Graham County spoke up in support of Prop 401, a voter referendum that confirms the prior zoning decision of the Graham County Board of Supervisors. The effort is to ensure that hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars of tax revenue stay right here in Graham County. The only reason that this referendum exists is due to the efforts of a man, George Khalaf, who had his campaign finance “dark money” practices questioned by media this summer.
“NatureSweet and Eurofresh have been in our community for 30 years. During this time, they invested in the people and our community, providing thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue,” said Kym Gifford, a small business owner.
One of the attacks on NatureSweet is over a property valuation disagreement in Graham County. Ten years ago, NatureSweet purchased their current greenhouse complex in Bonita and another greenhouse complex in Snowflake for approximately $30-plus million combined. Despite that sale establishing the clear market value of the property, Graham County assessed property taxes on NatureSweet based on a $100 million valuation. After an appeal process, Graham County agreed with NatureSweet that the original property valuation was too high. NatureSweet agreed to pay taxes on a $65 million property valuation, despite paying less than half that amount for the land.
“I believe in property rights and everyone paying their fair share of taxes. NatureSweet has always been there for this community. Saying that NatureSweet tried to ‘dodge’ property taxes is wrong and purposely inaccurate. We paid more than our fair share based on more than double what we paid for the land to begin with. Now we want to sell a piece of our property to a company that will grow legal crops in a responsible, regulated manner and save the greenhouses, and the jobs that go with it” said Bryant Ambelang, chairman of NatureSweet board.
“Speaking of money, who is paying for the no side of the 401 campaign? The ‘no’ campaign paid for petition signatures, and then hide their loot through some outside consultant and his father. We don’t even know who we are fighting against. That all sounds pretty fishy to me. Listen, just so Graham County citizens know, NatureSweet and Bayacan are paying for the YES on Prop 401 so that they can continue to operate these world-class greenhouses, diversify what they grow and employ hundreds of people and their families — they have roots in our community. They set up a campaign committee called Arizonans 4 Property Rights, and I am the proud Treasurer of that Committee,” said Tabetha Arranda, Graham County resident.
The Graham County Board of Supervisors’ decision allows for the growth of medical-grade marijuana in just two of the six greenhouses within the NatureSweet complex. NatureSweet wishes to sell this part of their complex to Bayacan, a company that plans to cultivate the medicinal-grade marijuana. Bayacan plans to spend slightly less than $50 million dollars in purchasing and upgrading the greenhouses with improvements and necessary equipment. Those upgrades are expected to create 62 construction jobs over four years. In the first year of operations, Bayacan plans to employ approximately 125 team members. At full build-out in approximately six years, the company expects to employ about 450 team members.
NatureSweet has, without fail, paid Graham County property taxes since their purchase of the business from EuroFresh. The current $1.3 million in annual taxes ($650,000 to Bonita Schools, $325,000 to Eastern Arizona College, $300,000 to Graham County) funds quality educational opportunities for students and essential government services for residents.
NatureSweet has indicated that, without the income from selling a portion of their property, it will permanently close the Bonita operations. This would result in a drastic reduction in tax revenue for Graham County and potentially force residents to pick up the shortfall.
