A new law passed by the state Legislature in 2022 is unintentionally affecting the taxes for five Cochise County School Districts: Naco, Double Adobe, Palominas, McNeal, and Pomerene.
Cochise County School Superintendent, Dr. Jacqui Clay wants property owners in these districts to know that they will see an additional tax, listed as “Type 03” on their school district property taxes when tax bills start getting mailed this September.
The Legislature was trying to reform how school districts with high schools are reimbursed by elementary-only school districts when students in the elementary districts start attending high school. Unfortunately, based on the state’s complicated method of funding public schools through property taxes, this law is causing tax increases in some school districts across the entire state.
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.
Petersen and Toma also wrote in their letter that they intend to have the Legislature improve this law during the next regular legislative session.
If you have any questions, please call (520) 803-3380.