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BISBEE — In a public meeting Monday, the Cochise County Board of Supervisors approved the levies and tax rates for the county and all the taxing entities in the county.
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According to Arizona law, the county has to approve the levies and new tax rate by the third Monday in August, said Lois Klein, county finance director. Since there are so many taxing districts within the county — municipal, light, fire, school, library, highway and floodplain — it’s hard to get all the written notices in to her office enough in advance to set these rates at a regular Tuesday meeting.
It is a long process that begins with the assessor’s office. The process of assigning market value estimates to all the properties requires the appraiser to match the property characteristics of the subject property with recently sold properties that have the most comparable property characteristics. Usually there will be several sales that are comparable to the subject property, requiring the appraiser to select the appropriate value for the subject property from the value range formed by the sale of the comparable properties, County Assessor Phil Leinendecker said.
Leinendecker said the valuation notices that property owners receive in March are actually based on market values of the year before.
“We’re behind around 18 months. That can work to the taxpayer’s benefit. When prices come down, like we’re seeing now, it works to their disadvantage,” he added. “But, we aren’t seeing the downward slide of property values here as much as there is in other counties.”
Leinendecker uses a formula worked out by the Arizona Department of Revenue. His staff starts with the actual cost of replacement and then adjusts for the going market value. This is done through affidavits of value recorded with deeds.
“We then compare that value with our market in the county. You could say real estate is the driving force in determining the value of property,” he said.
Property is taxed 10 percent of its full value, Klein explained. So, a home assessed to have a value of $100,000 would actually have property tax based on $10,000. Then that $10,000 is taxed at $2.6759 per $100 of that value, bringing the annual tax bill to $267.59.
“Now, that’s just the county primary tax,” Klein added. “There is also the addition of school district, fire district, flood district and all the other districts. That can raise taxes on a $100,000 to around $1,000.”
Bisbee residents, for instance, will pay a primary rate total of $10.2994 per $100 of value. This includes taxes due the county and city, as well as money due for Cochise College and Bisbee Unified School District. In secondary tax rates, which includes county flood and library districts, residents will pay another $2.2845 per $100 of value.
County residents are getting a 19-cent reduction this year as the new primary tax rate of $2.6759 per $100 of assessed was dropped from the rate of $2.8653 in 2007. The tax rate will generate $24,177,339 in revenue for the general fund.
This money is used to fund services the county provides, including the Sheriff’s Office.
Cochise College will see slightly over $15 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year in revenue produced from the $1.6604 primary tax rate per $100 in assessed value. That represents a very slight decrease of $0.0826 from 2007-08.
Among the county’s elementary schools, Apache and Rucker saw the biggest increases at $1.9723 and $1.5506 per $100 of assessed value, respectively. Naco and Double Adobe residents will see slight increases in the school tax. Double Adobe rose from $6.1635 last year to $6.4605 this year, which will produce revenue of $179,259. Naco will receive $199,344 from the new rate of $5.0484 per $100 of assessed value.
Valley Union High School will receive $668,252 in the coming fiscal year from the increased primary tax rate of $1.8595. That represents a $0.2875 increase over last year.
Tax rate tables are available at the supervisors’ office in the county complex on Melody Lane. The tables will be available on the county Web site.
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