La Paz County sets FY 2026-27 reimbursement rates for special districts

La Paz County has set the price special districts will pay for county help in the new fiscal year, and the core numbers are unchanged from the prior year. For fire districts in Parker, Quartzsite, Ehrenberg, Bouse and McMullen Valley, the county’s reimbursement schedule again puts a $4.22 per-parcel cap on financial services, while Buckskin remains excluded under board policy.

The schedule matters because it governs what districts will owe when they use county services tied to taxes, elections and administration. Under the county’s plan, financial services handled by the assessor and treasurer are billed at $76 an hour. Those charges cover assessment, levy, collection, apportionment and cash-balance work, the back-office functions that affect how local districts calculate revenue and manage budgets.

Election costs are also spelled out in detail. The base cost for election services is $1,035, with an added $196 per candidate and $392 per ballot question. The county says a district can be charged the full election cost if only one item appears on the ballot. The schedule also breaks out the labor and logistics that go into an election, including ballots, programming and layout, election-day labor, poll workers, counting-center workers, public-works support, recorder’s-office costs, mailing lists, rosters and registers, election-night personnel, early ballots and publications. Use of a deputy county attorney is billed at actual cost.

Those charges arrive as district boards are already facing election deadlines. La Paz County’s special-districts page lists candidate filing dates for the July 21, 2026 primary midterm election and the November 3, 2026 general midterm election. The filing period for the general election runs from June 6, 2026 through July 6, 2026, with a special-district write-in candidate deadline of July 20, 2026 and a write-in candidate deadline of September 24, 2026.

The county elections department says it administers primary and general elections in the Town of Parker, Town of Quartzsite, school districts and other special districts for local office holders and bond issues. That makes the reimbursement schedule more than a bookkeeping notice: it sets the terms for how much county election and finance support local districts will have to absorb before they make levy and staffing decisions.

The county’s FY 2025-2026 schedule used the same $4.22 per-parcel cap and the same $76 hourly financial-services rate, signaling continuity rather than a major shift in the basic cost structure. Even so, the formal notice gives districts across La Paz County a clear cost frame before budgets harden for the year that begins July 1, 2026.