Pinal County Property Tax Update-Oracle School District tax to change

VIA SBINSIDER| June 9th, 2023

Every year, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors (BOS) (and every Arizona County) passes a budget that runs from July 1st, to June 30th. The update is necessary due to changes in the valuation of property, sales tax revenue, revenue transfers from the State and Federal governments and of course, new or modified changes in spending needs.

The Assessor’s office role is to provide the the total taxable value of county private properties to the Board of Supervisors. (Incidentally, Pinal County has less than 25% of its land in private sector hands-the rest is non-taxable Federal, State or Tribal land.) The Board then takes that number and matches it to projected spending needs.

On your property tax bill, Pinal County’s portion is about 25%-depending upon where you live. To see your line item billing, go to this link https://treasurer.pinal.gov/ParcelInquiry

The actual property tax on individual residential property is calculated by the value multiplied by the tax rate. So, if the value of your property increases, and the rate stays the same, your taxes will go higher. Pinal County levied a rate of 3.59% in the prior fiscal year. At the budget presentation this past week, the Board voted to keep the rate the same for next fiscal year. While this is a preliminary budget vote, by law the rate cannot go any higher at this point in the process. It can still be lowered.

In the prior 3 years, the Board has voted to decrease the tax rate every year. This year, the cost driver for the County is inflation across the board. Health care insurance has risen every year since the advent of “Obamacare” and all the basic costs of running the county. With the low unemployment rate and the private sector handing out wage increases nearly every month, the challenge to retain and hire employees has been a serious problem. (Nobody likes taxes until they need the services.)

The final budget vote will come later in June. For those interested in more budget minutia you can contact County Supervisor Jeff McClure www.pinal.gov/1318/District-4-Supervisor

Oracle School District Tax to Change Structure

Last session (2022) the state legislature reformed and reconstructed the tax structure for school districts like Oracle, which has only K-8 facilities. House Bill 2124 changed the funding formula for the K-18 schools whose students must be bused to high schools outside of Oracle’s service area. The consequences that this change will bring are not certain as the Arizona Dept. Of Education has to process the legal issues into its funding formulas.

What is ergo unknown is whether the Oracle School District tax burden to SaddleBrooke residents will increase, decrease or remain the same. SBINSIDER will follow this story and report when details are available.