The Pinal County Board of Supervisors adopted the property tax rates and levies for every taxing entity in the county on Aug. 17, setting the county's own primary rate at $3.2607 per $100 of assessed valuation, down about 3% from last year.

The vote was unanimous. Supervisors Rich Vitiello, Mike Goodman, Stephen Q. Miller, Vice Chairman Jeff Serdy and Chairman Jeffrey McClure all voted yes in a roll call at the special session.

For San Tan Valley readers, this is the rate that applies across the area. Pinal County is the taxing authority for unincorporated San Tan Valley, and the county rate appears on bills inside the Town of San Tan Valley as well. The town does not levy a property tax of its own at this time, so there is no separate town line on a San Tan Valley property tax bill.

This Is Not the Same as the Budget Vote

The county adopted its $1,070,940,932 budget for 2026-27 back in June, and that is when the rate cut was announced. The Aug. 17 action is the separate, legally required step of adopting and certifying the actual rates and levies for all the taxing entities in the county, not just the county itself. Schools, cities, towns, fire districts and special districts all get certified in that one action.

That distinction matters for what lands in your mailbox, because the county is only one line on the bill.

Why a Lower Rate Does Not Always Mean a Lower Bill

This is the question supervisors said they get most, and it came up directly at the meeting. Vitiello said constituents ask him what they are actually saving, and described one who told him the rate went down but the bill went up by $13.

The answer is that a tax bill is a rate multiplied by a value, and both move. If the assessed value of a property rises, the bill can rise even when the rate falls.

Angie Woods, director of the county's Office of Budget and Finance, told the board there is no reliable average savings figure to give residents. The county adopted what is known as a truth in taxation rate, meaning the rate was set so that county revenue roughly tracks the change in property values rather than jumping with them. Beyond that, she said, a bill carries secondary rates that move independently, so two neighbors can see different outcomes in the same year.

Put plainly: the county lowered its rate, and whether your bill drops depends on your valuation and on what your school district, fire district and other special districts did.

Where Your Property Tax Dollar Actually Goes

Of every property tax dollar collected across Pinal County, 26.3 cents goes to the county. The county's own breakdown splits the rest this way:

K-12 school districts take 33.7 cents, the largest single share. Central Arizona College, the community college district that runs a campus in San Tan Valley, is counted separately and takes another 14 cents. Added together, the two education lines come to 47.7 cents, close to half of every property tax dollar collected in the county. Special districts take 17.8 cents, and cities and towns take 8.2 cents.

One line San Tan Valley property owners will not find on that bill is a fire district. Fire and emergency medical service in the San Tan Valley area comes from Rural Metro Fire San Tan Valley, which operates on a subscription and contract basis rather than being funded through a property tax district.

That is worth knowing before assigning credit or blame for a bill. Roughly 74 cents of it is set by someone other than the Board of Supervisors.

The Longer Trend

Lupe Williams, a budget supervisor in the Office of Budget and Finance, presented the numbers and put the reduction in a longer context.

The county's primary rate was $3.56 in 2022-23 and is $3.2607 for 2026-27. Two secondary rates also came down this year: the Flood District fell about 5% to $0.1538, and the Library District fell about 3% to $0.0863.

Williams also told the board the county is levying at 62% of the maximum rate state law allows, which she said leaves roughly $88 million the board could have taxed and did not.

She offered one more measure. In 2010-11 the county's primary property tax burden was 1.14% of residents' personal income, the second highest in the state. For 2026-27 that figure is 0.55%. Over the same period, she said, aggregate income in the county grew 191% while the primary levy grew 41%.

Pinal County's rates still sit above the statewide average, and Williams said the county's assessment base is 73% residential, 20% commercial and 6% agricultural. Goodman noted the commercial share has climbed over the past decade, and Williams said she would pull a five-year comparison to show what drove the change.

The board's next regular session is Aug. 26 at 9:30 a.m. at the Pinal County Administrative Complex, 135 N. Pinal St. in Florence.