BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 681|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 681
Author: Ting (D)
Amended: 7/15/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FIN. COMMITTEE: 7-0, 7/8/15
AYES: Hertzberg, Nguyen, Beall, Hernandez, Lara, Moorlach,
Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/27/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 6/2/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: State Board of Equalization: surveys: assessments
procedures and practices: county assessorState Board
of Equalization: surveys: assessment procedures and
practices: county assessor.
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill changes Board of Equalization's (BOE's)
process for surveying counties' assessment practices.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes BOE to equalize rates and assessment practices
among counties.
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2)Allows BOE to enact rules and regulations which generally bind
county assessors.
3)Requires BOE to survey each county assessor to determine
whether a county's practices and procedures are adequate, as
well as its general performance, as part of this oversight
role, the results of which BOE publishes as public documents
known as "Assessment Practices Surveys."
4)Requires Assessment Practices Surveys to include a review with
respect to the uniformity of treatment of all classes of
property to ensure that no class receives a systematic
overvaluation or undervaluation, and allows BOE to include a
sampling from assessment rolls, so long as it's of adequate
size and dispersion to determine adequate representation of
the several classes of property within the county. BOE
assesses the property on its own, and then compares its value
to the assessor's.
5)Allows BOE to access and make copies of any of the assessor's
records, or audit any book or record provided by a taxpayer in
the survey, but grants assessors a right to appeal BOE
appraisals within his or her county where differences haven't
been resolved before a field review.
6)Directs BOE to complete survey reports as rapidly as possible,
but requires them of all counties every five years, and
additionally requires:
a) BOE to sample assessments when surveying the ten largest
counties or cities and counties in the state, plus samples
from three other counties selected at random.
b) BOE to sample assessments from a county if it finds that
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it has significant problems in its last survey.
1)Establishes a process for BOE to interact with the assessor
regarding the survey prior to publishing:
a) BOE must send the survey report to the assessor once
complete, setting forth specific findings and
recommendations; however, before preparing the survey
report, BOE must meet with the assessor to discuss matters
included therein.
b) After receiving the survey report, the assessor may file
a written response with BOE within 30 days, unless the BOE
extends the period for good cause, which is included in the
final survey report.
c) Within a year after receiving the final survey report,
assessors must file a report with the Board of Supervisors
indicating the manner in which the assessor implemented,
intends to implement, or reasons for not implementing its
recommendations.
d) The assessor's response must be sent to the Governor,
the Attorney General, BOE, the Senate, and the Assembly, as
well as any grand jury and assessment appeals board in the
county.
e) The survey report, the assessor's response, and any
additional BOE notes constitute the final report, which
must be completed within two years after BOE begins the
survey.
1)Allows assessors to direct auditors to allocate supplement
costs of assessment of 5% when BOE certifies that the county's
assessment ratio exceeds 95% based on the most recent survey,
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and allows BOE to continue to certify following a survey that
does not include sampling if the board finds in the survey
that there are no significant assessment problems.
This bill:
1)Reforms the assessment practices survey county selection
process, effective January 1, 2016, by instead requiring BOE
to:
a) Survey and sample assessments from each of the ten
largest counties by assessed value once every five years,
instead of all counties every five years.
b) Survey one county ranking in size from 11th to 20th by
assessed value each year, and sample assessments from
another county from that group each year too.
c) Survey three counties ranking in size from 21st to 58th
by assessed value each year, and sample assessments from
two others from that group too.
d) Stratify and select counties at random within each
category in consultation with the California Assessors
Association.
e) Sunsets these changes on January 1, 2021.
1)Directs BOE to distinguish between surveys of former assessors
and current ones by requiring it to:
a) Notify the former assessor if the survey applies to that
former assessor's assessment practices.
b) Meet and confer on matters in the survey report at the
former assessor's request.
c) Allow an addendum to the final survey report to include
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a former assessor's written response, and the board's
comments, if any.
1)Requires BOE to issue the final survey report within one year
of beginning the survey, except for:
a) Surveys BOE begins before July 1, 2016, which BOE must
complete in two years.
b) Surveys BOE begins after July 1, 2016, but before to
June 30, 2017, which BOE must complete in 15 months.
Comments
Currently, BOE has 22 surveys in the pipeline, after which, the
timeline accelerates should AB 681 be enacted. To compensate,
BOE will be surveying fewer counties (58 to 30 over five years),
but sampling the same (26 to 25), because the measure replaces
the requirement to survey all counties every five years with a
statutory schedule. Under the schedule, BOE either samples or
surveys each of the 11th through 20th largest counties in a five
year period, and then survey three and samples two from the
remaining counties over that same time. As such, BOE would only
survey 47 of 58 counties every five years, but would both survey
and sample the counties with the overwhelming share of the
state's value, and do either for most of the rest.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to Senate Appropriations, AB 681 has costs estimated
to be $629,000 in 2016-17 and $571,000 annually thereafter
(General Fund). The bill would not impact property tax revenues.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/28/15)
Board of Equalization
California Assessors Association
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OPPOSITION: (Verified8/28/15)
None received
According to the author, "AB 681 improves the efficiency of
performance audits conducted on every county assessor's office
throughout the State by allowing BOE to focus its energy on a
larger portion of the assessment roll in a shorter period of
time. Under a new three-tiered system, the BOE will be able to
reduce the time needed to complete a survey report by 50% to a
full year. Performance audits are further improved by providing
former assessors with an opportunity to address issues relating
to the former assessor's procedures and practices. By reducing
the time needed to finalize a survey report and allowing former
assessors to address issues that may have occurred during their
term, AB 681 will ensure performance audits reveal meaningful
and timely information that can immediately be incorporated into
existing assessment practices."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 6/2/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Chávez
Prepared by:Colin Grinnell / GOV. & F. / (916) 651-4119
8/31/15 15:46:32
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