Company towns are an Arizona tradition.
Back in the day in places such as Bisbee and San Manuel, mining companies owned most of the land and most of the politicians. Well, that ain't over. Check out Oro Valley and a Maricopa development outfit known as Vistoso Partners . Vistoso owns great tracts of vacant land inside the corporate limits, but the company pays just token property taxes because a quirk in Arizona law allows them to run a few cows on that land and claim an agricultural tax exemption, even though the land has been rezoned for thousands of homes and major commercial uses. The Town of Oro Valley could ban the cows and allow the hard-pressed Amphi School District and Pima County to collect something to pay for all the growth Vistoso Partners has profited from over the years.