County of Maricopa v. North Central Development Co.

566 P.2d 688, 115 Ariz. 540, 1977 Ariz. App. LEXIS 439
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedMay 26, 1977
Docket1 CA-CIV 3095
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 566 P.2d 688 (County of Maricopa v. North Central Development Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
County of Maricopa v. North Central Development Co., 566 P.2d 688, 115 Ariz. 540, 1977 Ariz. App. LEXIS 439 (Ark. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinions

OPINION

WREN, Judge.

This appeal concerns the assessment of appellees’ partially completed buildings for property tax purposes for the 1971 tax year. Appellees had urged a number of grounds for the reduction or elimination of the tax before the Superior Court but the argument this Court finds dispositive is that the taxing of appellees’ properties in 1971 constituted unconstitutional discrimination in violation of the Uniformity Clause, Article 9 § 1 of the Arizona Constitution and the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.

Prior to the 1971 assessment, the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office had not valued partially constructed buildings for property tax purposes except to the extent that they were capable of occupancy. In October. 1970, the Director of the State Department of Property Valuation issued a directive to the County Assessor that all partially completed buildings be valued and taxed for the 1971 tax year. This valuation had to be completed by January 1, 1971. A.R.S. § 42-221 B.

Harold Huff, the deputy county assessor in charge of commercial properties, testified that, in light of the shortness of time, it was impossible for the personnel in the Assessor’s Office to fully comply with the directive by January 1, 1971. In his testimony, Huff described the system employed by the assessors prior to receiving the directive to assess all partially completed structures, and the efforts that were made at compliance for the 1971 tax year in the commercial property section.

After a building permit had been issued, a copy would be sent to the Assessor’s Office where it was noted on a card which designated the parcel where the construction was to take place. These cards were then sent to an assessor who visited the site and made an estimate of the completion date of the construction. A call-back system was maintained whereby in the month [542]*542of estimated completion, the property card would again go out to an assessor. The property was revisited and if construction was complete, the property would be assessed at its increased value. If construction were not finished, another estimate was made and the card would return to the call-back system.

At the time the directive was received, Huff testified that the assessors were working with the November and December callbacks; that is, properties estimated for completion in November and December, 1970. These call-back properties that were still not complete were assessed, pursuant to the directive, as partial completions for 1971. In addition, those properties that the assessors knew were under construction, or were observed by them in their travels around the county, were assessed for 1971 as partial completions. All those properties which had estimated completion dates in 1971 and were cataloged in the call-back system were not pulled and valued. Huff agreed that if all these call-backs had been checked, substantially all partial completions in Maricopa County would have been found. As it was, only 35, a small percentage of the partially completed commercial properties, were assessed.

Huff agreed with this summation of his department’s efforts:

“Q. So would it be accurate to say that most of the partially completed construction that was left off the rolls for the 1971 year were those constructions that were not probably mostly complete because they weren’t in the November and December call-back and those properties which were not so major that they didn’t just come to mind by virtue of your experience in the field?”

There was further testimony from the assessor in charge of apartment projects that between 30 and 35 partially completed apartment buildings had been assessed for the 1971 tax year. He was sure he had assessed all the big projects because he had kept notes on them. The assessor of residential properties testified that no attempt had been made to assess partially completed residences by January 1, 1971. However, an effort was made in mid-1971 to pick up some of the partial completions as escaped properties pursuant to A.R.S. § 42-236 D.

The trial judge found that the Maricopa County Assessor had failed to assess a substantial majority of partially completed residential and commercial structures for the 1971 tax year. He further found that the limited efforts of the assessors were directed primarily and purposefully at the few large commercial structures and that no effort had been made to insure uniformity. The utilization of such a system of assessment had discrimination built into it and resulted in a substantial inequality and lack of uniformity. The judge concluded that these systematic and intentional practices resulted in a discriminatory tax in violation of the Arizona and United States Constitutions and could not be sustained, irrespective of the assessors’ honest motives, because the result of their intentional acts was discrimination.

We have concluded that the judgment of the trial court must be sustained and that the finding of discriminatory assessment is fully supported by the evidence.

A threshold question to our consideration of the discrimination issue is whether partial completions are subject to tax under Arizona law. The Arizona Constitution Article 9 Section 2(C) provides:

“Section 2(C). All property in the state not exempt under the laws of the United States or under this constitution, or exempt by law under the provisions of this section shall be subject to taxation to be ascertained as provided by law. This section shall be self-executing.”

Exemption from taxation is the exception and not the rule in Arizona and the party claiming that property is not subject to taxation has the burden of showing some specific provision of law that unequivocally sustains the contention of non-taxability. State of Arizona v. Yuma Irrigation District, 55 Ariz. 178, 99 P.2d 704 (1940). No exemption for partially completed buildings has been provided by statute, A.R.S. § 42-[543]*543271, and we believe that the assessment of partially completed buildings is clearly within the intent of Arizona law. See Wagner v. Board of Review of City of Glenwood, 232 Iowa 58, 4 N.W.2d 405 (1942); Esto Real Estate Corp. v. Louisiana Tax Com’n., 170 La. 649, 129 So. 117 (1930); Union Portland Cement Co. v. Morgan County, 64 Utah 335, 230 P. 1020 (1924).

Turning to the issue of discriminatory assessment, the leading Arizona case is McCluskey v. Sparks, 80 Ariz. 15, 291 P.2d 791 (1955). In that case the Supreme Court noted that systematic and intentional disproportionate valuation of property constitutes discrimination in violation of the Uniformity Clause of the Arizona Constitution and the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. The party claiming discrimination must show that the unequal assessments were the result of systematic and intentional conduct on the part of the assessing official and not mere errors in judgment.

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County of Maricopa v. North Central Development Co.
566 P.2d 688 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
566 P.2d 688, 115 Ariz. 540, 1977 Ariz. App. LEXIS 439, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/county-of-maricopa-v-north-central-development-co-arizctapp-1977.