Property taxes go up 64% for Wittmann homeowners

WITTMANN, AZ - Imagine opening your property tax bill only to find out its gone up 65 percent. That was the reality for people who live in the small town of Wittmann.

"Somebody messed up and now we have to pay for it," said Wittmann home owner Robert Stabb. "It's just a big mistake on their part and the county's part, too, and they should have caught it."

Stabb says not only did his property values fall in his Wittmann home, now he just got a bill saying this year he will have to pay about 500 more dollars on his property taxes than last year.

Maricopa County Treasurer Charles Hoskins says it appears Wittman properties have been under taxed the last two years.

He said 61 percent of the property taxes are paid to education.

"If we don't keep track of what the schools are doing, and how they're spending the money then we can get surprises," Hoskins said.

The school district the Wittmann tax payers fund is the Nadaburg district.

Superintendent Greg Riccio says the problem actually started a few years ago.

He says the Nadaburg district thought it was getting more money from the state when it was approved to become a unified district a few years ago.

Riccio says the district tried to give taxpayers a break a few years ago by dropping the tax rate down to around 1 percent, but the district never started building the high school and the funds never came.

"The problem is there because of the state," Riccio said. "Through its formula though we generated more money than we would actually generate, because we are an elementary school district with only elementary schools, but we were granted unified status. That turned into a nightmare for the taxpayer because their taxes went down when they shouldn't have, and when it was discovered the taxes went back up."

Now when things couldn't be any tighter, Staab and his neighbor Leslee Klinsky are faced with their highest tax bill.

"I don't feel like anybody is looking out for the little guys and I pray," Klinsky said.

Riccio says while it may be too late to help ease the burden on taxpayers this year, he says he is going to work with the county and the legislature to see if they can get those tax increases adjusted over the next few years.

"We do think there will be some addressing of it in the future," he said.