By Justine Richardson
ABC15.com
FLORENCE, AZ -- Homeowners in Pinal County are furious by a mistake made on their property taxes.
“It’s ridiculous that someone can’t do their math,” said Anthony Carusillo, a homeowner in Gold Canyon.
The mistake was made by the School Superintendants Office, who admitted that a reduction was added to both the primary and secondary bills.
“When the original tax notices went out, the reduction was calculated on the total tax rate, which includes both the primary and secondary tax rate,” said Superintendant, Orlenda Roberts.
However, the reduction was only supposed to be applied to the primary rate, with the mistake resulting in a larger tax reduction than legally allowed.
“So we had to quickly make those adjustments and we're having to resend corrected notices to homeowners only,” said Roberts. “I’m just really really sorry that this happened.”
The updated property tax bill will be sent out on Thursday to Pinal County homeowners, including Carusillo, who feels that the county should be the one to pay.
“Take the loss, why should we have to pay for their mistake?” he said.
While Roberts isn’t going to pay the difference in property taxes for the entire county, her office is going to cover the additional costs to resend the updated bills.
“I know that there is a cost, and whatever that cost is my office will take care of that,” said Roberts.
The Superintendant's office is currently revising their system procedures to make sure a mistake like this won't happen again, for their benefit and the benefit of county home owners.
