At Wednesday's meeting, the Board of Supervisors fielded questions about the "Truth In Taxation" agenda item, which illustrates changes in taxes for County taxpayers. Arizona law requires that the public must be notified of any tax rate that levies a greater amount, in total, on existing properties. The required language calls it a "tax increase" despite the fact that Supervisors actually lowered the primary property tax rate by six cents, from $3.75 to $3.69, which is a 1.6% decrease. However, because the valuations of existing properties in total increased by 2%, there is an overall increase in the levy by 0.4%. Had the Board not reduced the tax rate, the increase in the total levy would have been 2%.
The change for each individual property will vary based on each property's change in valuation. Some levies will increase, some will stay the same, and some will decrease. If an assessed property value increased due to improvements or market conditions by 20%, State law still only allows only a 5% per year increase.
Assessed value differs from Market value. For instance, a property in the Anthem subdivision in Florence that has a Market Value of $357,000 and an assessed value of $16,596.09 would incur a property tax of $612.40. If an increased assessment occurs of the greatest amount possible - 5% - the value would be $17,425.89, which would result in a tax of $643.01. Had the supervisors not lowered the tax rate, the tax bill would have been $653.47. Please note that this would be for the Primary Property tax levy portions that the Pinal County Board of Supervisors has jurisdiction over, which on average is only about 24% of the total tax bill. Other taxing jurisdictions include cities/towns, school districts, Central Arizona College, and special districts.
The Arizona "Truth In Taxation" law defines any rate over $367.55 per $100,000 of assessed value as a "tax increase" over baseline rates established by the legislature - making a tax rate decrease look like a tax increase to citizens. In reality, the Board of Supervisors is decreasing the tax rate from $375 per $100,000 to $369 per $100,000.
Other Truth In Taxation statements illustrated the tax change in the Library and Flood Control Districts. An approval for increased funding for these districts occurred, which will result in a total tax per $100,0000 of assessed value of nineteen cents for the Library District, and forty cents for the Flood Control District.
