Law of unintended consequences causing tax increase for small Pima County school districts
PIMA COUNTY, Sept. 1, 2023 – A new law passed by the state Legislature in 2022 is unintentionally causing a significant property tax rate increase for Continental School District, and also is affecting the taxes for four other mostly rural Pima County elementary-only school districts.
Pima County Treasurer Beth Ford wants property owners in the Continental district to know they will see a 17 percent increase on average in their school district property taxes when tax bills start getting mailed out Sept. 7.
“The Legislature was trying to adjust how school districts with high schools are reimbursed by elementary-only school districts when students in the elementary districts start attending high school,” Ford said. “Unfortunately, based on the state’s complicated method of funding public schools through property taxes, the law of unintended consequences is causing tax increases in some school districts.”
Besides Continental, Altar Valley, Empire, Reddington, and San Fernando elementary school districts also are affected by the law change, but not to the extent of Continental. The Continental district includes large parts of Green Valley and Sahuarita and has about 24,000 taxable properties affected by the new law. The law went into effect June 30, 2023.
State Senate President Warren Petersen and state Speaker of the House Ben Toma in an Aug. 1 letter to the state’s Property Tax Oversight Commission, wrote that a tax increase was not the intent of HB 2124 during the 2022 legislative session.
“Nothing in the legislative record suggests lawmakers or the Governor sought for the law change to create a meaningful property tax increase in rural Arizona or to relieve the State’s general fund of its financial burdens,” the two wrote in the letter.
The letter asked the Commission to direct counties not to implement the new law. The Commission responded that it is reviewing the matter. Treasurer Ford said the Pima County Board of Supervisors adopted the tax levies for property taxing jurisdictions Aug. 21 and her office must follow the law and send bills based on the adopted levies.
“The Legislature passed the law, and the governor signed it. Pima County is required to follow it, as unfortunate as that is for the Continental School District taxpayers,” Ford said.
She noted that Petersen and Toma wrote in their letter that they intend to have the Legislature fix the funding formula next year.
More information about HB2124 from the Arizona School Boards Association.
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