Cochise supervisors amend SBOE finding, deny Stronghold Farmsagricultural tax claim for 202224

Cochise County supervisors voted 3-0 on Feb. 20 to amend a State Board of Equalization (SBOE) hearing officerdecision and deny a notice-of-claim filed by Stronghold Farms LLC, owned by Aaron Letowski, seeking agricultural classification for tax years 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The action reverses a Jan. 8 SBOE hearing officer award to the petitioner and adopts the Cochise County assessoroffice recommendation to deny the claim. The boardmotion urged that the claim did not meet the narrow statutory definition of a tax-roll error and therefore could not be remedied through the tax-roll correction process.

County Assessor Phil Leyendecker told supervisors the claim was filed under the countytax-roll correction statute rather than the annual valuation-appeal process and that the correction statute applies only to verifiable errors, not valuation or classification disputes. "I must recommend to this board that you amend the decision of the state equalization hearing officer and deny," Leyendecker said during the Feb. 20 hearing.

Leyendeckerand assessor staff described the subject…