Arizona

Decision instrument

The state may not contract debt over $350,000, except to repel an invasion, suppress an insurrection, or defend the state in war.

What public act authorizes the borrowing, and where is the purpose and the first-year cost written down? Arizona Constitution, Article 9, Section 5. Inside the $350,000, the debt is for a casual deficit or an expense not otherwise provided for. The money may be used only for that purpose or to repay the debt. The Department of Administration’s accounting manual says this ceiling is a debt secured by the full faith and credit of the state. A borrowing secured only by the property bought, where the state’s only loss on default is the property, is not counted against the $350,000.

Debt statement

No Annual Debt Statement of the New Jersey kind. The figures below are reports the governments submitted. They are not an audit.

What yearly filing states gross debt, deductions, and how close the issuer is to its limit? Arizona Department of Administration, Report of Outstanding Indebtedness, March 9, 2026, for the year ended June 30, 2025. The department says the data have not been audited. County dollar rows are not attached.

Debt limit

Without a vote, a county, city, or school district stops at 6% of taxable property. A county or a school district never goes over 15%.

What cap binds a county or a city, and is the state's own ceiling a different rule? Constitution, Article 9, Section 8. The vote is a majority of the property taxpayers who are also qualified electors. A city or town, with that vote, may add another 20% for water, light, or sewers it owns, and for parks, public safety, and streets. The value is the last assessment. A city uses its own assessment. A.R.S. § 35-503 counts par principal only. Premium is not in the limit. The base is the net assessed value of the full cash value. Revenue bonds, municipal-property-corporation bonds, and certificates of participation are generally outside that limit.

Conflict rule

An officer with a substantial interest in a contract has to write it in the official records and may not vote or take part.

Which ethics statute covers local officers, what counts as an interest, and who is left out? A.R.S. § 38-503. A substantial interest is a real money interest, direct or indirect, other than a remote interest. Owning less than 3% of a corporation’s shares is remote if the dividends are not more than 5% of the officer’s annual income and other payments from that corporation are not more than 5% either. A county may buy up to $300 in one transaction, and no more than $1,000 a year, from a member of the board of supervisors, if the board approves that policy each year.

Geography

Fifteen counties.

What is the county-equivalent, and which cities, schools, and authorities must not be pasted onto that row? FIPS 04001 through 04027. La Paz is 04012. Cities, school districts, and special districts also borrow. Dollar rows stay blank.

Primary money record

State agencies and universities reported $5.081 billion outstanding. That is not general obligation debt of the state.

Which audited report is the state's own number, and as of what date? Department of Administration, June 30, 2025. The printed outstanding principal is $5,081,126,674. The report’s own description is about $4.8 billion of revenue bonds, $230 million of certificates of participation, and $100 million of leases. Those rounded pieces are the report’s words. They are not a second total. Nine of 119 state agencies and universities had debt outstanding. The report says agencies use revenue bonds because of the limit on general-obligation debt.

Who pays the coupon

The revenue bonds are paid from the project’s own revenue. The certificates are paid only if the agency appropriates the rent.

Which fund, tax, or rate is actually pledged — not which new store might show up later? The report says revenue bonds are backed primarily by the revenues of the project being funded. Certificates of participation are shares in leases that the agency can cancel if it does not appropriate the payment, and for that reason they are outside the constitutional limit. The largest reported balances are Arizona State University $2.448 billion, the University of Arizona $1.318 billion, the Department of Transportation $821 million, and Northern Arizona University $369 million.

Other obligors

All reporting governments together: $35.7 billion. Do not read that as a debt of the state.

Which authorities and districts borrow beside the state and must not be added to its total? The same report’s pile is revenue bonds about $20.4 billion, general obligation bonds about $10 billion, municipal property corporation bonds about $2 billion, certificates of participation about $1.5 billion, and leases about $2.0 billion. The subdivisions that reported general-obligation debt had $9.8 billion outstanding against a capacity of $157.4 billion. Those two general-obligation figures are different cuts of local debt. Neither is the state’s $350,000 ceiling, and neither is added to the $5.081 billion.

Book-entry wall

Cede & Co., at the Depository Trust Company.

Who is the registered owner on ordinary public paper? Series-level confirmation still waits on that official statement. Beneficial owners stay unnamed.