Pinal County is refunding businesses who paid a voter-approved transportation tax that has since been ruled invalid.
Voters approved the tax in 2017 and the county collected roughly $87 million for it between 2018 and 2022, when the state Supreme Court deemed it invalid in a 4-3 decision. The future of the county’s transportation projects remains uncertain.
“Arizona law does not permit Pinal County to adopt a two-tiered retail transaction privilege tax on tangible personal property as part of a transportation excise tax. Therefore, Pinal County’s two-tiered retail transaction privilege tax is invalid,” the Court stated.
The Pinal Regional Transportation Authority, Pinal County and the state Department of Revenue have a three-party agreement on the refund process, which took quite while to craft.
In March of this year, the county started refunding taxpayers. PRTA Executive Director John Kross says the stakeholders had to take a cautious approach.
“This has never been done in the state of Arizona for that matter, a very very unique situation. So the department of revenue and certainly Pinal County wanted to be very very careful,” Kross said.
As for the proposed transportation projects the voters initially approved the tax to fund — they’re not happening. And they won’t happen without a new funding source.
The county pitched a new transportation tax to voters in 2022, but they rejected it.
Kross said the need for these transportation projects is great and the PRTA is “actively working on a new regional transportation plan.” They hope to have it by early fall.
Businesses have until April 9, 2026, to ask for refunds.
But Kross said it’s an unanswered question as to what happens if there is money left over when the refund period ends, or if the county receives more refund requests than it has the cash to fulfill.
He said the PRTA would like leftover funds to go to the transportation projects voters approved them for in the first place.
The money has been kept in an escrow account, where it’s collected some interest.
According to Pinal County spokesperson Ray Telles, the county has received 71 requests for refunds, and 56 have been approved and processed. So far, slightly more than $12 million has been refunded.
