Aaron Connor, who is running for Maricopa County Assessor, and Dan Toporek, who is running for the county’s Treasurer, held a Virtual Town Hall to discuss what their plans would be if they were elected in the 2020 election.
As head of the office that assesses property owners’ property value, Connor said in the meeting he hopes to lead the office in a better direction from that of the previous office, whose head, Paul Petersen, was charged for running an illegal adoption ring.
Former Gilbert City Councilmember Eddie Cook has served as the county’s assessor since February 2020, after the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed him to the position. He will also run in the 2020 election.
See related: Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appoints new county assessor
If elected, Connor hopes to hire more efficient real estate assessors.
“The assessor’s office currently has a deficit of about 30 or 40 assessors,” he said.
In the virtual meeting, Connor said he wants to travel to every city in Maricopa County to better educate taxpayers on the importance of the assessor’s office. He also explained the greater level of transparency that he wants to bring into the office.
He expressed that during the previous assessor’s office, taxpayers were not getting fair and accurate assessments of their properties.
He continued to explain how Cook and Petersen “have weaponized this office,” meaning people in certain communities are “losing their homes due to unfair or biased assessments.”
For example, Connor explained in the meeting that a woman in south Phoenix bought a home and was taxed out due to an inaccurate assessment. It is because of situations like these, Connor said, that transparency and communication with the general public are so important.
The lack of clarity and accuracy in current and previous administrations “was due to neglect,” Connor said. “I think when you have a past assessor that only decided to go into the office 53 days last year, that’s a problem.”
In addition to Connor’s ideas, Toporek also said in the meeting that he is planning to make changes for the treasurer’s office. Like Connor, he wants to build more transparency and trust within the office for the people of Maricopa County. He said that the current treasurer’s administration uses its “anonymous position” to “hide so they don’t have to be accountable for the people.”
Toporek expressed that being treasurer isn’t just about doing the job, but it is also about informing the public about the decisions being made.
“People need to know how their money is being spent,” Toporek said.
He also explained that he wants to improve the office’s innovation and collaboration with other offices in the county governance.
Connor wrapped up the meeting by stating that he wants to better train current assessors. The hiring of new assessors is going to be his first priority as well as keeping current assessors for a period of time in order to pass their level of expertise on to new assessors. He also added that 75% of property taxes goes directly toward education.
“If you care about paying teachers a living wage, you want to make sure that you have someone with democratic values in the assessor’s office,” Connor said.
Elections for the new Assessor and Treasurer will be held on Nov. 3 of this year.
Contact the reporter at aawfe@asu.edu.
