Years of making incorrect property classifications led to a class-action judgment that means Maricopa County owes roughly $333 million in return payments to taxpayers.
The Maricopa County Community College District said in a notice of claim that its account is being unjustly and unlawfully raided by the county treasurer to help pay the bill.
The district says the county can’t force it to pay interest accrued during years of litigation, and that the treasurer has prematurely withdrawn about $25 million from the district’s account to help pay for property-tax returns.
Lawyers for MCCCD say the initial cause of the county’s enormous liability is incorrect property classifications that started in 2015, when Paul Petersen was assessor.
He later pleaded guilty to human smuggling in an adoption-fraud scheme involving women from the Marshall Islands.
Petersen is scheduled to be released from a federal prison in Oklahoma next July.
EDITOR'S NOTE: KJZZ is licensed to the Maricopa County Community College District.
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