Assessor urges board to fund appraiser role and desktop-review tools to chip away at 6,000-permit backlog

Assessor Armando Ruiz told the Coconino County Board of Supervisors that his office needs a mix of staff and technology to address a persistent backlog of building permits that remains on the assessors unreviewed queue.

"We receive annually about 2,000 new permits and had a baseline of roughly 6,000 going into the year," Ruiz said, adding that nearly half of permit activity the office receives comes from the City of Flagstaff. He cautioned that "this is permit value — it's not taxes, it's not property assessments. This is just the total value that the permitting entity has assigned to those projects," and said only a portion of permits ultimately change a property's taxable value under Arizona law.

Why it matters: uninspected permits can delay placing new construction on the tax roll and can mean revenue and assessment lines are out of date for special districts and taxing jurisdictions. The assessor said the statute requires a roughly 15% increase in a property's value before a reassessment will alter tax calculations, meaning not every permit produces additional tax revenue.

What the assessor asked: Ruiz presented two staffing requests for FY27 — a full-time administrative/public-service specialist and an appraiser-level position — and said the managers office had recommended a three-year limited-term Appraiser 3 in the managers proposed budget. Ruiz argued a permanent appraiser would better support retention and the long training pipeline for commercial appraisers, who require certification and significant on-the-job learning.

How it could be done faster: Ruiz said the assessors office has successfully used aerial imagery and desktop review to tackle lower-complexity cases and that a programmatic mix of increased desktop assessments, redeployment of internal resources and one additional experienced appraiser could reduce the backlog from more than three years to roughly 18 months--two years. He also said his office would estimate how many permits are likely to yield statutory taxable changes and report that analysis to the board.

Board response and next steps: Supervisors pressed the assessor on capacity, training time and alternatives such as contracting the work out. Ruiz said outside contractors could present legal and administrative complications but did not rule them out, and committed to returning with estimates on the percentage of permits likely to change taxable value and regular progress reports if the board funds additional staff or directs alternative actions.