It’s been four years since The Arizona Supreme Court sided with the Goldwater Institute and found that Pinal County illegally collected $80 million in sales taxes. In the wake of that ruling, the state’s Department of Revenue gave Pinal County taxpayers the opportunity to apply for refunds. As of this date, more than $39 million has been returned to the people of Pinal County. But the window for refund applications is scheduled to close on April 6, 2026. And that raises a new problem.
Not all taxpayers who were entitled to a refund will get one under the Department’s process. Some taxpayers may have moved out of the county, or failed to keep the necessary paperwork, or even died before being able to seek the refunds to which they’re entitled. And, of course, there’s the fact that under Arizona law, consumers are not necessarily considered taxpayers, meaning that even though the County’s illegal tax forced them to pay more for items they needed, they don’t get that money back. Whatever the case might be, some victims of Pinal County’s illegal tax scheme got relief—but it’s estimated that there is somewhere close to $50 million left in the government’s account that hasn’t been returned to the victims. So, the question remains, what to do with the remining funds?
As a matter of both principle and policy, it’s imperative that these funds be returned to their rightful owners, the taxpayers of Pinal County. No defendant who breaks the law should get to keep the product of his ill-gotten gains. To do anything but return these funds directly to the people of Pinal County would set a dangerous precedent, effectively telling the government that it can keep the fruits of breaking the law.
Fortunately, plans are in the works in the Arizona legislature to determine the future of these wrongfully connected funds. We’re hopeful that—nearly a decade after this saga began—the legislature will do the right thing by returning money to Pinal County’s hard-working taxpayers of and send the message that nobody, not even municipalities, are above the law.
Jenna Bentley is the Director of Government Affairs at the Goldwater Institute.
