USD Over-Collects Taxes

A bookkeeping error will result in Coconino County Unified School District No. 1 over-collecting more than $1.5 million of property tax revenue in fiscal 2011 that will have to be rebated to residents in 2012.

District officials said more than $3 million was taken from the capital outlay fund to finance projects that should have been paid for with bond proceeds. As a result of the error, the capital outlay fund showed a low balance.

The reduced fund level was a component in the increase in the secondary property tax rate, which supports school bonds.

Chief financial officer Ken Garland said the property tax bills mailed to residents in early October contain an erroneous rate that would add $27.50 per year to the tax due on a $250,000 home.

Garland was named district CFO in August, after the error was made.

The cash balance for the fund at the end of fiscal 2010 was $4.5 million, Garland told school trustees last week, but the total should have been $7.6 million.

The school district, which serves Flagstaff, has $48.6 million of outstanding debt that is rated A1 by Moody’s ­Investors Service and AA-minus by Standard & Poor’s.

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