Scottsdale Unified School District has a plan to repay a $23.7 million debt it owes the county due to an error made by the Maricopa County Assessor’s office.
The district will sell up to $10 million in tax anticipation notes and cash on hand to pay down the debt.
A group of property owners claimed the assessor’s office appraised their homes wrongly between 2015 and 2021 because the properties changed classification from an owner-occupied residential home to a rental or secondary home, or vice versa. The homeowners took the county to court in 2016, Qasimyar v. Maricopa County, and recently won their case, leaving Maricopa County school districts, fire districts, cities and towns having to pay back more than $329 million, with school districts on the hook for nearly $150 million. At $27.6 million, Scottsdale Unified was the hardest hit school district in the county.
