BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 820|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 820
Author: Gordon (D)
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 6-3, 6/29/11
AYES: Wolk, DeSaulnier, Hancock, Hernandez, Kehoe, Liu
NOES: Huff, Fuller, La Malfa
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 51-22, 5/5/11 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Property taxation: fee: preparation of
certificate
SOURCE : California Association of County Treasurers and
Tax Collectors
DIGEST : This bill requires a county assessor, tax
collector, and auditor to charge and collect a fee to cover
the actual and reasonable costs incurred in preparing a
certificate-of-payment showing taxes paid, instead of the
existing $1 fee.
ANALYSIS : Existing law provides that county boards of
supervisors can levy authorized fees or charges in amounts
reasonably necessary to recover the costs of providing
products or services or the cost of enforcing regulations.
The fees or charges may reflect the average cost of
providing products or services or enforcing regulations,
plus limited indirect costs. If any person disputes the
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fee, then the Board of Supervisors may request the auditor
to study whether the fee is reasonable.
This bill deletes a certificate of taxes paid from the list
of documents that an assessor, tax collector, and auditor
charges $1 for preparing. This bill instead provides that
the assessor, tax collector, or auditor shall charge and
collect a fee to cover the actual and reasonable costs
incurred to prepare the certificate of taxes paid as
established by the Board of Supervisors.
Background
Despite generally deregulating county fees 25 years ago,
state law set a large number of fees, including civil
fees, county recorder fees, and fees charged by
agricultural commissioners in absolute amounts until the
Legislature updated many of these by tying them instead to
the county's reasonable costs (SB 676 ÝWolk], Chapter 606,
2009). However, many fees charged by treasurer-tax
collectors remain as dollar amounts fixed in law long ago,
among those the fee for preparing a certificate of payment
showing taxes paid currently set at $1 and unchanged since
1947. The certificate of taxes paid is part of a list of
documents that also include certified copies of redemption
certificates, installment redemption receipts, and
assessments as entered on the assessment roll. The fee for
providing a copy of a record or document by the
photovoltaic procees of the above documents shall be the
actual cost plus $1. The California Association of County
Treasurers and Tax Collectors wants to remove it from the
list of documents subject to the $1 cap and tie the fee
instead to the county's reasonable costs.
Comments
In November, 2010, voters approved Proposition 26, which
reclassifies as taxes many charges previously defined as
fees, thereby triggering the California Constitution's
voter approval requirements. The initiative excluded from
the definition of tax "a charge imposed for a specific
government service or product provided directly to the
payor that is not provided to those not charged, and which
does not exceed the reasonable costs to the local
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government of providing the service or product." Despite
variances in reasonable costs from case to case and county
to county, this bill's tie to the reasonable costs of
preparing a certificate of taxes paid complies with the
plain language of Proposition 26, and therefore the
Legislature can enact the measure by a majority vote of
each house of the Legislature, and not the two-third
supermajority required for bills increasing taxes. While
Proposition 26 affects increases in everything from
environmental fees to tax swap bills to charges for using
parks and renting equipment, and many of those effects are
not yet tangible or even clearly understood, the initiative
does not change the Legislatures' authority to allow boards
of supervisors to increase fees to reflect reasonable costs
by majority vote.
Related Legislation
AB 902 (Alejo) similarly deletes statutory caps on fees
necessary to conduct tax sales and replaces it with the tax
collector's reasonable costs as established by the Board of
Supervisors.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/30/11)
California Association of County Treasurers and Tax
Collectors (source)
California State Association of Counties
Counties of Sacramento, San Mateo, and Santa Clara
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author:
"This fee has not been adjusted in over 60 years.
Obviously, the cost of providing this service has
increased considerably over the years, and it is critical
that local governments be given the flexibility to charge
a fee that more accurately reflects the cost of providing
this service. The process of setting local fees for
cost-recovery, as described in Government Code 54986, is
a proven system that allows for local variance and
inflation over time."
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ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 51-22, 5/5/11
AYES: Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Block,
Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan,
Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos, Carter, Cedillo,
Chesbro, Davis, Dickinson, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes,
Galgiani, Gatto, Gordon, Hayashi, Roger Hernández, Hill,
Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Lara, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma,
Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Norby, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel
Pérez, Portantino, Skinner, Solorio, Swanson, Torres,
Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NOES: Achadjian, Bill Berryhill, Conway, Cook, Donnelly,
Fletcher, Grove, Hagman, Halderman, Harkey, Jeffries,
Knight, Logue, Mansoor, Miller, Morrell, Nestande, Olsen,
Silva, Smyth, Valadao, Wagner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Furutani, Garrick, Gorell, Hall, Jones,
Nielsen, Vacancy
AGB:kc 6/30/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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