BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                       



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                  SB 1493|
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                              UNFINISHED BUSINESS


          Bill No:  SB 1493
          Author:   Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee
          Amended:  6/21/10 
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE REVENUE & TAXATION COMMITTEE  :  5-0, 4/14/10
          AYES:  Wolk, Walters, Alquist, Ashburn, Padilla

           SENATE FLOOR  :  33-0, 4/22/10 (Consent)
          AYES:  Alquist, Ashburn, Calderon, Cedillo, Corbett,  
            Correa, Denham, DeSaulnier, Ducheny, Dutton, Florez,  
            Hancock, Hollingsworth, Huff, Kehoe, Leno, Liu,  
            Lowenthal, Maldonado, Negrete McLeod, Oropeza, Padilla,  
            Pavley, Price, Romero, Simitian, Steinberg, Strickland,  
            Walters, Wolk, Wright, Wyland, Yee
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Aanestad, Cogdill, Cox, Harman, Runner,  
            Wiggins, Vacancy

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  76-0, 8/2/10 (Consent) - See last page for  
            vote


           SUBJECT  :    Property taxation

           SOURCE  :     California Assessors Association
                      California Association of County Treasurers and  
          Tax 
                        Collectors


           DIGEST  :    This bill makes five changes to the property tax  
          law relative to (1) assessors sending information via  
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          electronic mail, (2) assessors posting information on the  
          Internet, (3) clarifying inflation adjustments for the  
          low-value exception, (4) destroying scanned records, and  
          (5) price adjustments during tax sales of welfare-exempt  
          property.

           Assembly Amendments  make a clarifying change in the  
          provisions concerning destroying scanned records.

           ANALYSIS  :    

           Specifics of SB 1493 

           I. Assessors Sending Information Via Electronic Mail

             Existing law requires the Assessor to mail all notices  
             via the United States Postal Service to taxpayers.  

             This bill allows assessors to instead send base year  
             value notices (Section 75.31 of the Revenue and Taxation  
             Code [RTC]), and property tax valuation information (RTC  
             Section 619) via electronic mail at the written request  
             of the taxpayer.  

          II.Assessors Posting Information on the Internet

             Existing law requires the Assessor to annually inform  
             property taxpayers of the value of their property, as  
             well as its increase or decline over the previous year,  
             and its Proposition 13 value, based on the 1975-76 value  
             or the most recent sale, plus a maximum two percent  
             growth for each succeeding year (SB 1105 [Senate Revenue  
             and Taxation Committee], Chapter 940, Statutes of 1997).  
              The Legislature added this requirement as a result of  
             market declines, when property values fall below the  
             Proposition 13 value, triggering Proposition 8 (November  
             1978), which requires the County Assessor to assess the  
             property at its fair market value.  In subsequent annual  
             assessments, such fair market value can rise up by an  
             unlimited amount until it reaches the Proposition 13  
             level, at which time the two percent limit caps the  
             property's taxable value.  Assessors may send the  
             information to the taxpayer via mail, or having  
             published lists in newspapers, or both.

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             This bill allows assessors to publish relevant lists on  
             the assessor's Web site upon approval of the county  
             board of supervisors.

          III.Clarifying Inflation Adjustment for Low-Value Exception

             Existing law refers to the "base year value" when  
             determining whether the low-value exception from  
             assessment applies.  However, the term is ambiguous: it  
             could mean the original base year value or the factored  
             base year value.  Section 155.20 refers to Section 50,  
             which in turn ties to Section 110.1, which refers to  
             Section 51, both of which include an inflation  
             adjustment, implying that the factored base year value  
             is appropriate. 
              
             This bill codifies the inflation adjustment, thereby  
             removing the ambiguity.

          IV.Destroying Scanned Records

             Existing law requires assessors to keep paper documents  
             for six years even though they have been scanned and  
             stored on microfilm and microfiche. 
              
             This bill allows counties to destroy documents if upon  
             preservation in a medium that provides access to the  
             documents such as microfilm, microfiche, electronic  
             document imaging, or other such media that captures a  
             true image of the document that may be later retrieved.

          V. Price Adjustments During Tax Sales of Welfare-Exempt  
             Property 

             Existing law (RTC Section 3698.5) allows treasurer-tax  
             collectors at a lower minimum price at the same or the  
             next scheduled tax sale if no acceptable bids are  
             received.  However, the treasurer-tax collector does not  
             have the same discretion for welfare-exempt properties  
             (RTC Section 3698.7), only allowing the treasurer-tax  
             collector to offer the welfare-exempt property at a  
             lower minimum price at the next sale.  


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             This bill reconciles the conflict, thereby allowing the  
             treasurer-tax collector to treat both kinds of  
             properties similarly.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  No    
          Local:  No

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  8/3/10)

          California Assessors' Association (co-source)
          California Association of County Treasurers and Tax  
          Collectors (co-source)


           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    Sponsored by the California  
          Assessors' Association and the California Association of  
          County Treasurers and Tax Collectors, this bill is a  
          technical, non-controversial bill that improves local  
          administration of property tax laws for the benefit of  
          taxpayers and assessors alike.  Consolidating the measures  
          into a single bill negates the need for individual bills to  
          enact each change.  Additionally, this bill only contains  
          items with universal agreement; items that are  
          controversial or problematic will be removed from the bill.


           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  : 
          AYES:  Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall,  
            Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block,  
            Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Charles  
            Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De  
            La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher,  
            Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani,  
            Garrick, Gatto, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi,  
            Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight,  
            Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller,  
            Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, V. Manuel Perez,  
            Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner,  
            Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson,  
            Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, John A. Perez
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Caballero, Nielsen, Norby, Vacancy


          DLW:mw  8/4/10   Senate Floor Analyses 

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                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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