PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Wednesday approved $14 million in funding for special taxing districts impacted by a court decision with far-reaching impacts on public safety.
The funding was approved a month after the ABC15 Investigators reported on fire districts concerns after learning they were on the hook to pay $10 million in tax refunds after a judge ruled Maricopa County overtaxed some property owners.
It was an error the fire districts didn’t cause, and money fire chiefs said they didn’t have, and could force them to cut services or shut down fire stations.
“This just came out of nowhere,” Arizona Fire & Medical Authority Chief Mark Burdick said in an interview last month. “It’s our ability to respond, when you need us on your worst day.”
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The Board of Supervisors said $10.1 million will go to fire districts that respond to emergencies. The other $4 million will go to lighting districts and maintenance improvement districts not associated with a city or town, but also impacted by the court decision.
The county said funding was only approved for taxing districts with no available source of revenue other than property taxes, and no other governing body to seek assistance.
Court decision at the center of property tax dispute
This all stems from a 2016 lawsuit, Qasimyar v. Maricopa County. A tax court ruled in favor of property owners who sued the county, alleging they were improperly and erroneously assessed when their properties went from a primary resident to a rental or secondary home or vice versa. And therefore, should have seen lower property tax bills because of what’s known as a “change of use.”
The Arizona Court of Appeals upheld the ruling and agreed some property owners were overtaxed, which forced hundreds of thousands of homes to be reassessed and resulted in property tax refunds from 2015 to 2021.
The Maricopa County Assessor and Treasurer both have websites now dedicated to the far-reaching impacts of the court decision.
In all, the county treasurer estimates it will have to pay back $329 million dollars in property tax refunds. Hundreds of millions of dollars all county taxing districts, including school districts, fire districts, cities and towns are on the hook to repay.
The county said 164,000 property owners will receive refunds from that bucket of more than $300 million dollars.
If the county hadn’t come through with another solution, Arizona Fire and Medical Authority said it was also considering a tax increase for all property owners to repay the $5.9 Million it owes in tax refunds.
“Raise their tax by whatever amount to recoup this money,” Burdick said in a previous interview.
In a statement Wednesday, the Board of Supervisors said, “Board members agreed it was important to prioritize funding to fire districts as they are critical to public safety.”
ABC15 is still gathering reactions from county fire chiefs and will have more in another story later this week.
Have a tip for the ABC15 Investigators? Email Investigator Jennifer Kovaleski at jennifer.kovaleski@abc15.com.
