Amended in Senate August 15, 2016

Amended in Senate August 2, 2016

Amended in Assembly May 27, 2016

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 2476

Introduced by Assembly Member Daly

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Travis Allen, Brough, Chu, Frazier, and Gatto)

February 19, 2016

An act to add Chapter 8.5 (commencing with Section 54930) to Part 1 of Division 2 of Title 5 of the Government Code, relating to local governments.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 2476, as amended, Daly. Local governments: parcel taxes: notice.

Existing law authorizes cities, counties, and special districts to impose a parcel tax or property-related fee for specified purposes.

This bill would begin delete require, before the adoption of any new parcel tax, end delete begin insert require end insert the legislative body of a local agency, as defined, to provide notice of a new parcel tax to the owner of a parcel affected by the tax, if that owner does not reside within the jurisdictional boundaries of the taxing entity. This bill would require the notice to include specified information and to be provided to the property owner in a specified manner. This bill would provide that the local agency may recover the reasonable costs of the notice from the proceeds of the parcel tax. By imposing new duties upon local county officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

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

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

SECTION 1.  

Chapter 8.5 (commencing with Section 54930)
is added to Part 1 of Division 2 of Title 5 of the Government Code,
to read:

 

Chapter  8.5. Parcel Tax Notices

 

54930.  

(a) The legislative body of a local agency shall provide
notice of a new parcel tax to an owner of a parcel affected by the
tax, if that owner does not reside within the jurisdictional
boundaries of the taxing entity.

(b) For purposes of this section:

(1) “Local agency” means any city, county, school district, or
special district authorized to impose a parcel tax.

(2) “Parcel tax” means a tax levied by a local agency upon any
parcel of property identified using the assessor’s parcel number
system, or upon any person as an incident of property ownership
pursuant to Section 4 of Article XIII A of the California
Constitution, that is collected via the annual property tax bill.

(c) The notice shall include, but is not limited to, all of the
following information:

(1) The amount or rate of the begin delete proposed end delete parcel tax in sufficient
detail to allow each property owner to calculate the amount of the
tax to be levied against the owner’s property.

(2) The method and frequency for collecting the begin delete proposed end delete parcel
tax, and the duration of time during which the parcel tax will be
imposed.

(3) The telephone number and address of an individual, office,
or organization that interested persons may contact to receive
additional information about the begin delete proposed end delete parcel tax.

(d) The notice shall be accomplished through a mailing, postage
prepaid, in the United States mail and shall be deemed given when
so deposited. The notice shall be mailed to a property owner, if
that owner does not reside within the jurisdictional boundaries of
the taxing entity begin delete proposed to be end delete subject to the new tax, whose name
and address appears on the last equalized county assessment roll
or the State Board of Equalization assessment roll, as applicable.
The notice shall be in at least 10-point type, and shall be in one of
the following forms:

(1) An envelope or mailing which shall include the name of the
local agency and the return address of the sender on the cover.

(2) A postcard, which shall include the name of the local agency
and the return address of the sender on the front, and include the
following information on the back in this format:

 

Dear Property Owner: The local agency named on the front of this postcard begin delete has voted to place end delete begin insert imposed end insert a parcel begin delete tax on the ballot for approval by registered voters. end delete begin insert tax. end insert The begin delete proposed end delete parcel tax will be:

1. Levied at a rate of [Amount or Rate of begin delete Proposed end delete begin insert the end insert Tax]

2. Collected [Frequency and Method of Collection]

3. Levied [Specify number of years or if indefinitely]

If you have any questions about the begin delete proposed end delete tax, please contact:

[Name and Telephone Number]

[Address]

[Email Address or Website Address]

 

(e) The local agency may recover the reasonable costs of the
notice required by this section from the proceeds of the parcel tax.
The costs recovered for these purposes, whether recovered pursuant
to this subdivision or any other provision of law, shall not exceed
the reasonable costs of preparing and mailing the notice.

SEC. 2.  

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution for certain
costs that may be incurred by a local agency because, in that regard,
this act provides for reimbursement to a local agency in the form
of additional revenues from the proceeds of a parcel tax that are
sufficient in amount to fund the new duties established by this act,
within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.