Property Tax

Payson homeowner Paul Penning got a shock recently when he learned the assessed limited property valuation of his three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home jumped $22,000. Home valuations were sent out Feb. 15 and Penning wasn't the only one in northern Gila County to be taken off guard by an increased assessment. After new valuation notices went out to all property owners a few weeks ago, Gila County Assessor Dale Hom said his office has had a flurry of calls.

KINGMAN - A statewide group of residents is fed up with the Arizona property tax system. Arizona Tax Revolt will be circulating an initiative in the next few weeks to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. "People have budgets. They budget so much for groceries, bills and other items every month. They budget for their property taxes. They expect them to be so much," said Marc Goldstone, chair of Arizona Tax Revolt.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Thousands of Pima County homeowners will see increases of $100,000 or more in the tax value of their homes in their 2008 valuation notices, officials said. The notices being mailed this week are based on home sales that occurred in 2005 and 2006, at the height of the hot housing market. The tax rates that are adopted this summer will be applied to these values in 2008. Taxes paid this year will be based on last year's values.

A bipartisan measure moving through the Arizona Legislature to cut business taxes likely would mean a higher property taxes for homeowners — at least in the short term. HCR2037 would exempt the first $150,000 of business equipment from annual property tax levies. The move, according to Rep. Ben Miranda, D-Phoenix, would mean no tax on equipment at all for 90 percent of all firms in the state.