Hundreds of thousands of residential Maricopa County properties had to be revalued and hundreds of entities must pay back property tax dollars as a result of a recent class-action lawsuit.
Peoria Unified School District is one of those entities and will have to refund taxpayers to the tune of an estimated $7.2 million.
The lawsuit — Qasimyar v. Maricopa County — stems from a resident challenging the way the county calculated how it charged homeowners for property taxes.
The Arizona Court of Appeals upheld the ruling that Maricopa County overtaxed many property owners from 2015 to 2023.
As a result, county taxing authorities — including PUSD — must refund revenue previously received or budgeted funds because of excessive property valuations.
PUSD CFO Michele Myers said the ruling is affecting school districts across the county through no fault of their own.
“The districts will be required to refund revenue cash payments previously received related to those years that were collected and levied to support school districts’ budgets,” she said. “(This) will pull back any monies that have been deposited resulting in negative cash amounts for the related school districts.”
The situation has been continually evolving and the processing of the refunds will not start until July 2025, Myers said.
In 2021, the Arizona Court of Appeals upheld a decision that said a “property’s limited property value must be calculated using a specific statutory calculation” if there is a change in use from a primary residence to a non-primary residence or rental or vice-versa, according to a Maricopa County press release.
The method by which Maricopa County calculated taxing residential property taxes was done the same way in all the other counties in Arizona, said Jason Berry, a county spokesman.
“Only Maricopa County got sued over the issue,” Berry said.
Those impacted property owners will receive a refund check in the mail for each of the seven years plus interest that’s accrued along with a letter explaining the reason for the refund, according to Jordan Dale, a spokesman for the Office of the Arizona State Treasurer.
The issue will not go beyond the 2023 tax year as the state Legislature changed the laws regarding how those properties are classified.
Editor’s note: Independent Newsmedia reporter Brent Ruffner contributed to this report.
Philip Haldiman can be reached at phaldiman@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @philiphaldiman. We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Meet Philip Haldiman is an award-winning journalist who most recently took first place for investigative reporting in 2023 from Arizona Newspapers Association. He joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2015, covering Sun City West his first year. Since 2016, he has covered the city of Peoria. Prior to coming to INI, he was a reporter with The Arizona Republic for seven years, covering numerous cities throughout the Valley. Before that, he was a freelance writer.
Community: Haldiman spearheads the Peoria Independent Hometown Heroes Awards program, honoring local individuals and businesses that give back to the community. He has hosted local candidate forums over the years and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Haldiman also served as a member of the Journalism Program Community Advisory Board at Glendale Community College. Outside journalism, Haldiman served as a member of the city of Peoria Complete Count Committee for the Census, 2019-2020. Lastly, he has served as a member of his HOA governing board since 2021.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications and a BA in Theater.
Random Fact: Haldiman is a fourth-generation Arizonan as well as wrote and produced an autobiographical comic book about his time spent in Hollywood and his life as a cult film star.
Hobbies: He enjoys hiking Arizona’s mountainous landscapes and is currently working on a play for the stage.
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