A law passed by the Arizona Legislature in 2022 is having unintended consequences, according to officials in Pima County. It’s creating a significant property tax rate increase for some school districts.

Pima County Treasurer Beth Ford said property owners in the Continental School District will see a 17% increase on average in their school district property taxes when bills go Sept. 7.

Senate President Warren Petersen and Speaker of the House Ben Toma said a tax increase wasn’t the intent of House Bill 2124, which changed how high schools are reimbursed by elementary-only school districts when students in the elementary districts start attending high school.

Petersen and Toma wrote a letter about it last month to the state’s Property Tax Oversight Commission, asking it to direct counties not to implement the new law.

Rebecca Wilder, communications director for the Arizona Department of Revenue, said the commission voted on the matter at a meeting Aug. 11.

In a written statement, Wilder said: "Commission members unanimously voted in agreement with the request to allow county supervisors to advise elementary school districts without high school districts attached to them (also known as “Type 3” districts) to levy, for grades nine through twelve, an additional amount equal to the lesser of the annually established qualifying tax rate per A.R.S. § 15-971 ($1.6549) or the amount calculated by the county school superintendents per A.R.S. § 15-992(F)."

Ford said the county must follow the law.

“The Legislature passed the law, and the governor signed it," she said. "Pima County is required to follow it, as unfortunate as that is for the Continental School District taxpayers."

EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of this story said the Property Tax Oversight Commission was still reviewing the request from Petersen and Toma.