How government works in Scottsdale
Three governments send you a bill and a ballot at a Scottsdale address, and a fourth, a sovereign nation, sits across Pima Road. The city fixes the streets and zones the lots, the county counts the votes and values the house, and the state writes the rules both of them live under. Scottsdale only makes sense once you see all three, so here are 26 guides that start at the Capitol and work down to the Kiva at City Hall.
26
Guides
7
Seats on the city council
5
County supervisors
90
State legislators
Four layers, one address
Read from the outside in: each layer can only do what the one above it allows.
- 01 7 guides ↓
Statehood 1912 · Capitol in Phoenix
The State of Arizona
The layer that writes the rules. Arizona’s populist 1912 constitution, its legislature and its voters decide what every county and city is allowed to do, how they tax, and where the water comes from.
- 02 6 guides ↓
Formed 1871 · 4.7 million people
Maricopa County
The state’s local arm. The county runs elections, values and bills property, prosecutes felonies, keeps the jails and public health, and governs every acre no city has claimed.
- 03 3 guides ↓
Districts, a sovereign nation & regional bodies
The Valley & Its Neighbors
The governments that don’t fit the city–county–state ladder: the sovereign Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community next door, the elected school boards, and the regional agencies that plan the freeways and buses.
- 04 10 guides ↓
Incorporated 1951 · Charter 1961
The City of Scottsdale
The layer residents actually see: a council-manager charter city with a mayor and six council members elected at large, a city manager running the departments, and voters who keep the final word on the big things.
Why Scottsdale works the way it does
Six facts about Arizona and Maricopa County that explain most of what happens at City Hall.
Arizona trusts voters more than politicians
The 1912 constitution gave citizens the initiative, the referendum and the recall. Scottsdale’s charter carries the same instinct, which is why voters bought the Preserve, locked it with Prop 420 and can petition a council decision onto the ballot.
Read the guide →The legislature holds the pen
A charter gives Scottsdale home rule over municipal affairs, but the state decides what counts as one. When the city and the Capitol disagree, on short-term rentals or on Axon’s headquarters, the Capitol usually wins.
Read the guide →Sales tax pays the bills, not property tax
Constitutional caps keep property taxes low, so Arizona cities run on sales tax and state-shared revenue. That is why Scottsdale courts resorts, car dealers and Fashion Square shoppers so hard: visitors fund a large share of the city.
Read the guide →The county fills every gap the city leaves
Maricopa County runs your elections, values your house, prosecutes felonies and keeps the jails. It also governs every acre outside city limits, which is how Rio Verde Foothills grew up without a water utility.
Read the guide →Water is state law before it is city policy
The 1980 Groundwater Management Act requires a proven 100-year water supply before homes can be sold. Scottsdale’s growth, its Colorado River contracts and its drought plan all start from that rule.
Read the guide →A sovereign nation shares the eastern border
East of Pima Road is the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, a government older than the city with its own council, police and courts. The Loop 101, Talking Stick and Salt River Fields all came out of deals between the two.
Read the guide →26 of 26 showing
The State of Arizona
The layer that writes the rules. Arizona’s populist 1912 constitution, its legislature and its voters decide what every county and city is allowed to do, how they tax, and where the water comes from.
The Arizona Constitution
The populist 1912 rulebook that hands voters real power
Arizona's constitution was written by a Progressive-minded convention in 1910 and took effect with statehood on February 14, 1912. It distrusts concentrated power: voters can make laws by initiative, veto the legislature by referendum and recall almost any elected official, and since 1998 the legislature can barely touch a law the voters passed.
The voters, who amend it directly or approve the legislature's changes
State Preemption & Home Rule
Where Scottsdale's charter ends and the Capitol takes over
Arizona cities exist because the state lets them. A charter gives Scottsdale home rule over purely local affairs, but when the Legislature declares something a matter of statewide concern, state law wins. Since 2016 lawmakers have used that power to protect short-term rentals, ban bag fees, police city ordinances through the attorney general, and, in 2025, cancel Scottsdale's referendum on Axon's headquarters.
The Legislature writes the limits; courts referee them
Arizona Water Law
The 1980 groundwater law, the CAP canal and the 100-year rule
Arizona water law runs on three systems. Surface water from the Salt and Verde rivers goes by seniority, and SRP delivers it. Groundwater in the Phoenix area is regulated under the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, which requires new subdivisions to prove a 100-year supply. Colorado River water arrives through the Central Arizona Project, which sits near the back of the line in a shortage. Scottsdale draws on all three.
Arizona Department of Water Resources, under the governor
The Arizona Legislature
A citizen legislature with the last word over cities
Arizona's legislature has 30 senators and 60 representatives, one senator and two House members from each of 30 districts, all elected every two years. It is a part-time citizen body paid $24,000 a year, it meets from the second Monday in January, and it can pass laws that override city ordinances, including Scottsdale's.
Senate president and House speaker, chosen by each chamber's majority
The Governor & Statewide Offices
One governor, many separately elected bosses
Arizona splits its executive branch among separately elected officials: the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, mine inspector and a five-member Corporation Commission that regulates investor-owned utilities like APS. Starting in January 2027 the state will also have its first lieutenant governor, elected on a joint ticket with the governor in November 2026.
Governor, plus six separately elected offices and a five-member commission
The Arizona Courts
From Scottsdale City Court up to the state Supreme Court
Arizona has one integrated court system. The seven-justice Supreme Court sits on top, the Court of Appeals (Division One in Phoenix) below it, and Maricopa County Superior Court handles serious cases. Justice courts and city courts like Scottsdale City Court take traffic, misdemeanors and small civil cases. In Maricopa County, judges above the local level are appointed through merit selection, then face yes-or-no retention votes.
Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court
Arizona Taxes & State-Shared Revenue
Privilege tax, flat income tax and the money the state sends back
Arizona taxes sellers, not shoppers: its 5.6% transaction privilege tax is a levy on the business, usually passed along at the register. Since 2023 the state income tax has been a flat 2.5%, and cities now receive 18% of it. Add shares of state sales tax, gas tax and vehicle license tax, all divided largely by population, and the city's proposed 2025/26 budget counted about $117 million from the state, while constitutional limits keep the city's own property tax small.
The Legislature and voters set rates; Dept. of Revenue collects
Maricopa County
The state’s local arm. The county runs elections, values and bills property, prosecutes felonies, keeps the jails and public health, and governs every acre no city has claimed.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors
Five partisan supervisors running the state's biggest local arm
Maricopa County was carved out of Yavapai County on February 14, 1871, with Phoenix as its seat. Today it covers 9,224 square miles and about 4.7 million people, the fourth most populous county in the country. Five supervisors, each elected by district in partisan races for four-year terms, pass a budget of about $4.1 billion and hire a county manager to run it, but they can do only what the Arizona legislature allows.
Five supervisors elected by district, who hire a county manager
Elections in Maricopa County
Why your city ballot is run, counted and certified by the county
In Maricopa County, the elected Recorder registers voters and runs early voting, and the Board of Supervisors' Elections Department runs Election Day vote centers and counts the ballots. Voters can use any vote center in the county, and nearly nine in ten ballots are cast early. Scottsdale's nonpartisan city races ride on the same ballot, on the state's dates: in 2026, the July 21 primary and the November 3 general.
County Recorder (registration, early voting) and Board of Supervisors (Election Day, counting)
Unincorporated Maricopa County
Where the city line ends and county rules take over
Unincorporated land is land no city or town has incorporated or annexed. There the county is the local government: its Planning and Development department sets zoning, its transportation department keeps the roads, the Sheriff patrols, fire districts or private subscriptions fight fires, and water comes from wells, private utilities or trucks. Rio Verde Foothills, northeast of Scottsdale, is the best-known example.
Board of Supervisors, with the Sheriff and county departments
The County's Elected Officers
Seven independently elected offices the board funds but can't run
Besides the five supervisors, Maricopa County voters elect a sheriff, county attorney, assessor, recorder, treasurer, school superintendent and clerk of the superior court, plus a justice of the peace and a constable in each of 26 justice precincts. Each runs an independent office with duties set by state law. The Board of Supervisors funds them but cannot direct them, which is why county politics so often ends in court.
Seven countywide officers, plus justices of the peace and constables
Property Taxes in Maricopa County
The Assessor values it, the Treasurer bills it, schools get most
In Maricopa County the elected Assessor puts a value on every property and the elected Treasurer sends one consolidated bill that collects for every taxing district your parcel sits in. Homes are taxed on a limited property value that can rise no more than 5 percent a year, at a 10 percent assessment ratio, and the bill is due in two halves, on October 1 and March 1.
Elected County Assessor and County Treasurer
Maricopa County Services
The region-wide jobs no single city can do alone
Inside Scottsdale the city handles police, fire, water, streets and parks, but Maricopa County still runs a long list of services for city residents: restaurant inspections and mosquito control, public health and vital records, air quality rules, dog licensing, the Flood Control and Library districts, regional parks, the Superior Court and the Medical Examiner.
Five-member Board of Supervisors and county departments
The Valley & Its Neighbors
The governments that don’t fit the city–county–state ladder: the sovereign Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community next door, the elected school boards, and the regional agencies that plan the freeways and buses.
Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
A sovereign nation on Scottsdale's eastern border since 1879
The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is a sovereign tribal nation of the Akimel O'odham (Pima) and Xalychidom Piipaash (Maricopa) peoples, set aside by executive order on June 14, 1879. It borders Scottsdale along Pima Road and the Loop 101, governs itself through an elected council with its own police, courts and schools, and owns much of what visitors think of as Scottsdale's entertainment district.
Elected president, vice president and seven council members
School Districts & Colleges
Separate governments, elected boards and their own tax votes
Scottsdale's public schools are run by independent school districts, not the city. Most of the city is in Scottsdale Unified, with Paradise Valley Unified and Cave Creek Unified covering parts of the north. Each district has an elected board and its own ballot measures, and families also choose among charter schools and, since 2022, state-funded Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.
Elected, nonpartisan school district governing boards
Regional Transportation & MAG
Why the Loop 101 exists and why there's no train to Old Town
Freeways and transit in the Valley are planned regionally. The Maricopa Association of Governments, formed in 1967 with a Scottsdale mayor as its first chair, decides how federal and regional money is spent; ADOT builds and runs the freeways; Valley Metro runs buses and light rail. A county half-cent sales tax, first passed in 1985 and renewed in 2004 and 2024, built the Loop 101 through Scottsdale.
MAG Regional Council of local elected officials
The City of Scottsdale
The layer residents actually see: a council-manager charter city with a mayor and six council members elected at large, a city manager running the departments, and voters who keep the final word on the big things.
The City Charter & Council-Manager Government
The 1961 home-rule constitution the city still runs on
Scottsdale incorporated in 1951 as a one-square-mile town and adopted a home-rule charter on October 31, 1961. The charter set up council-manager government: seven elected officials, all chosen citywide, set policy and appoint six charter officers, led by a professional city manager who runs the day-to-day city.
Mayor and six council members, who hire a city manager
The Mayor & City Council
Seven members, elected at large, nonpartisan, four-year terms
Scottsdale is governed by a mayor and six council members, all elected citywide on a nonpartisan ballot to staggered four-year terms, with a limit of three consecutive terms. A candidate who wins a majority in the summer primary is elected outright; otherwise the top finishers meet in November. The council meets in the round Kiva at City Hall, usually on Tuesday evenings.
Mayor Lisa Borowsky (as of 2026) and six council members
The City Budget & Taxes
A sales-tax city, paid for in large part by visitors
Scottsdale's fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30. The city manager proposes a budget each spring and the council adopts it in June; for fiscal 2026/27 the total was roughly $2.1 billion, counting operations, capital projects, water and reserves. The biggest local revenue source is the city's 1.70% sales tax (8.0% combined with state and county), backed by a 5% bed tax, state-shared revenue and a small property tax.
City manager proposes; council adopts
The Preserve & the Voters
The desert voters bought, and the charter now guards
The McDowell Sonoran Preserve is more than 30,500 acres of city-owned desert and mountain land, bought mostly with sales taxes Scottsdale voters approved in 1995 and 2004. Its governance is unusual: voters funded it, backed its expanded boundary, and in 2018 amended the city charter to bar non-preservation uses without their consent. A 2024 tax now pays for its upkeep.
City council, advised by the McDowell Sonoran Preserve Commission
Scottsdale Water
Colorado River water, recycled water and a drought plan with teeth
Scottsdale Water is the city-owned utility that treats and delivers the city's drinking water and handles its wastewater. About 90% of its supply is surface water, roughly two-thirds from the Colorado River through the Central Arizona Project and the rest from the Salt River Project, with groundwater under 10%. Recycled water irrigates north Scottsdale golf courses, and an advanced treatment plant purifies it well enough to recharge the aquifer.
City water department, under the city manager and council
Voters & Ballot Measures
How residents put taxes, bonds and plans on the ballot
Scottsdale voters hold four levers: the initiative (write a law or charter amendment and petition it onto the ballot), the referendum (petition a council decision onto the ballot within 30 days), and the votes state law or the charter require on taxes, bonds, the General Plan and the city's spending limit. They have used them to buy and protect the Preserve, fund parks and public safety, and ratify General Plan 2035.
Scottsdale voters; the City Clerk runs petitions
The General Plan & Zoning
Why zoning is the main arena of Scottsdale politics
Arizona requires Scottsdale to keep a General Plan, the city's long-range blueprint, and to put each new one to voters. General Plan 2035 was ratified in November 2021 with about 54% of the vote. Below it sit area plans such as the Old Town Character Area Plan, a zoning ordinance, and boards that recommend, review design and grant variances before the council makes the final call on rezonings.
City council, advised by the Planning Commission and Development Review Board
Annexation & the City's Shape
How a one-square-mile town became a city 31 miles long
Scottsdale incorporated in 1951 on roughly a square mile of old townsite. Using Arizona's petition-based annexation law, it raced Phoenix for surrounding county land through the 1960s and 1970s, then annexed about 80 square miles of northern desert between 1981 and 1984. Today the city covers about 184 square miles and runs 31 miles north to south.
City council, by ordinance, with landowner petitions
Police, Fire & City Court
From America's private-fire experiment to a full public system
Scottsdale runs its own police department, fire department, 911 communications and municipal court. The fire department dates only to July 1, 2005, when it replaced Rural Metro, the private company founded here in 1948. City Court handles traffic, misdemeanors and city code cases; felonies go to the Maricopa County Attorney, the Sheriff's jail and Superior Court.
Police and fire chiefs under the city manager; a presiding judge appointed by the council
Taking Part in City Government
How to be heard at City Hall before the vote, not after
You can watch Scottsdale City Council meetings live on the city's video channel or in person in the Kiva, sign up to speak or submit a written comment at least 90 minutes before a meeting, apply for one of about two dozen volunteer boards and commissions, follow zoning cases through required neighborhood open houses, and vote in city elections after registering with the Maricopa County Recorder.
You, plus the City Clerk's Office
No guide matches that combination — try clearing a filter.
Who does what at a Scottsdale address
Inside city limits. Outside them, in the county islands and places like Rio Verde, the county takes the city’s column.
-
- City
- Scottsdale Police Department
- County
- Sheriff patrols unincorporated areas
- State
- DPS patrols the Loop 101
- Also
- Salt River Police on the Community
-
- City
- Scottsdale Fire Department (since 2005)
- County
- Fire districts outside city limits
- State
- Forestry & Fire Management on wildland
-
- City
- Scottsdale Water
- State
- ADWR enforces the groundwater law
- Also
- CAP & SRP deliver the raw water
-
- City
- City streets, signals, trolley
- County
- Roads in unincorporated areas
- State
- ADOT runs the Loop 101
- Also
- MAG plans; Valley Metro runs buses
-
- City
- Planning Commission, DRB, council
- County
- Zoning in unincorporated areas
- State
- Writes zoning law; Prop 207 takings rule
-
- City
- 1.7% (since July 2025)
- County
- 0.7%
- State
- 5.6%, collected by the Dept. of Revenue
-
- City
- Small city levy + voter-approved bonds
- County
- Assessor values it; Treasurer bills it
- State
- Constitution caps the rates
- Also
- School, college & special districts levy most of it
-
- City
- Scottsdale City Court: traffic, misdemeanors
- County
- Superior Court & justice courts
- State
- Court of Appeals, Supreme Court
- Also
- Federal court in downtown Phoenix
-
- City
- Short-term holding only
- County
- Sheriff runs the county jails
- State
- State prisons
-
- City
- City Clerk handles city candidates
- County
- Recorder registers; Elections runs voting
- State
- Secretary of State certifies results
-
- County
- County School Superintendent
- State
- Funding formula, standards, vouchers
- Also
- Elected school district boards
-
- County
- Public Health; Air Quality (no-burn days)
- State
- ADHS & ADEQ
-
- City
- City parks, Preserve, public library
- County
- Regional parks, e.g. McDowell Mountain
-
- County
- Animal Care & Control
-
Marriage license, birth certificate
- County
- Clerk of the Superior Court; Vital Registration
- State
- ADHS vital records
-
Driver’s license & car tags
- State
- ADOT Motor Vehicle Division
-
- State
- Corporation Commission regulates APS
- Also
- SRP, a public power district, sets its own
Government, and the city it built
Every guide links into the history archive — the 1951 incorporation, the 1961 charter, the preserve votes and the water fights — and to the mayors and civic leaders who ran the place. For the parts of the city those decisions shaped, start with the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, the Civic Center and the neighborhood guides.
Plain-English explainers, not legal advice. Office holders, rates and dates change; each guide carries the date its facts were last checked.