California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly BillNo. 1499


Introduced by Assembly Member Gray

February 27, 2015


An act to amend Section 96.1 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, relating to local government finance.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1499, as introduced, Gray. Property tax: revenue allocations.

Existing property tax law generally requires the county auditor, in each fiscal year, to allocate property tax revenues to local jurisdictions in accordance with specified formulas and procedures, and generally requires that each jurisdiction be allocated an amount equal to the total of the amount of revenue allocated to that jurisdiction in the prior fiscal year, subject to certain modifications, and that jurisdiction’s portion of the annual tax increment, as defined.

This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to that provision.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

P1    1

SECTION 1.  

Section 96.1 of the Revenue and Taxation Code
2 is amended to read:

3

96.1.  

(a) Except as otherwise provided in Article 3
4(commencing with Section 97), and in Article 4 (commencing with
5Section 98), for the 1980-81 fiscal year and each fiscal year
6thereafter, property tax revenues shall be apportioned to each
7jurisdiction pursuant to this section and Section 96.2 by the county
P2    1auditor, subject to allocation and payment of funds as provided
2for in subdivision (b) of Section 33670 of the Health and Safety
3Code and subparagraph (D) of paragraph (3) of subdivision (g) of
4Section 53395.8 of the Government Code, to each jurisdiction in
5the following manner:

6(1)  Forbegin delete eachend deletebegin insert everyend insert tax rate area, each jurisdiction shall be
7allocated an amount of property tax revenue equal to the amount
8of property tax revenue allocated pursuant to this chapter to each
9jurisdiction in the prior fiscal year, modified by any adjustments
10required by Section 99 or 99.02.

11(2)  The difference between the total amount of property tax
12revenue and the amounts allocated pursuant to paragraph (1) shall
13be allocated pursuant to Section 96.5, and shall be known as the
14“annual tax increment.”

15(3)  For purposes of this section, the amount of property tax
16revenue referred to in paragraph (1) shall not include amounts
17generated by the increased assessments under Chapter 3.5
18(commencing with Section 75).

19(b)  Any allocation of property tax revenue that was subjected
20to a prior completed audit by the Controller, pursuant to the
21requirements of Section 12468 of the Government Code, where
22all findings have been resolved, shall be deemed correct.

23(c)  (1) Guidelines for legislation implementation issued and
24determined necessary by the State Association of County Auditors,
25and when adopted as regulations by either the Controller or the
26Department of Finance pursuant to Chapter 3.5 (commencing with
27Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government
28Code, shall be considered an authoritative source deemed correct
29until some future clarification by legislation or court decision.

30(2) If a county auditor knowingly does not follow the guidelines
31referred to in paragraph (1), that county auditor shall inform the
32Controller of the reason or reasons for not following the guidelines.
33If the Controller disagrees with the stated reason or reasons for
34not following the guidelines, the provisions of paragraph (3) do
35not apply.

36(3) If, by audit begun on or after July 1, 2001, or discovery by
37an entity on or after July 1, 2001, it is determined that an allocation
38method is required to be adjusted and a reallocation is required for
39previous fiscal years, the cumulative reallocation or adjustment
40may not exceed 1 percent of the total amount levied at a 1-percent
P3    1rate of the current year’s original secured tax roll. The reallocation
2shall be completed in equal increments within the following three
3fiscal years, or as negotiated with the Controller in the case of
4reallocation to the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund or
5school entities.

6(4) If it is determined that an allocation method is required to
7be adjusted as provided in paragraph (3), the county auditor shall,
8in the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which this
9determination is made, correct the allocation method in accordance
10with statute.



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