BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 585
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Date of Hearing: May 11, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 585 (Fong) - As Amended: April 25, 2011
Policy Committee: Housing and
Community Development Vote: 7-0
Revenue and Taxation 9-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of Housing and Community
Development (HCD) to furnish to county assessors a complete list
of all manufactured homes, including mobile homes, sited within
the county, as provided. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires HCD, by March 1, 2012, to furnish to the county
assessor of the county, in which a manufactured home is sited,
a complete list of all manufactured homes sited within that
county.
2)Specifies that the list shall include manufactured homes, not
subject to property tax, that make payments to HCD in lieu of
property tax payments.
3)Requires HCD to furnish the information in a machine readable
format that can be imported into internal applications.
FISCAL EFFECT
Costs to HCD of approximately $35,000 to create and run a
program that would be able to manipulate the currently available
information into the specific format requested that will be
easily used by county assessors.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . The author states that, "In a period of time when
every penny counts, it's important that we look at all avenues
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to ensure our schools and local governments are getting the
revenues that are due to them."
The proponents of this bill argue that the information
provided by HCD to local assessors will help identify those
manufactured homes that have not been reported to the county,
or may have been reported to the wrong county for property tax
purposes. Proponents assert assessors need a full listing of
manufactured homes, including newly registered and pending
transfers, in order to streamline the assessment of property
taxes.
According to the sponsor, California Assessors' Association,
some manufactured homes have not been assessed because the
assessors have not yet received pertinent information from
HCD. Eventually, when assessors have access to that
information, they will add those currently unassessed
manufactured homes to the property tax roll and will require
the owners of those homes to pay several years of back
property taxes.
As noted by the BOE staff, should the data matching project
uncover a significant number of previously undiscovered
manufactured homes or changes in ownership, the resulting tax
bill could be significant to these manufactured homes owners.
At the same time, the longer it takes for the assessors to
discover and rectify the problem, the less likely it is the
assessors would be able to assess and collect all of the back
taxes due to the statute of limitations applicable to escape
assessments.
2)Background . Under existing law, all new manufactured homes,
including mobile homes, must initially register with HCD, and
the registration must be renewed upon changes in ownership.
For manufactured homes that are subject to a license fee, the
registration must be renewed annually. Most manufactured
homes in California are subject to the local property tax, but
some manufactured homes are still subject to a license fee "in
lieu" of property tax. County assessors are in charge of
administering the local property taxes, including those
applicable to manufactured homes. HCD is responsible for the
registration and titling of all manufactured homes and is
required to inform the county assessor of all new
registrations and titles to manufactured homes sited within
the county. Because of the overlapping jurisdictions in this
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area, cooperation and exchange of information between the
state and counties are critical.
Analysis Prepared by : Roger Dunstan / APPR. / (916) 319-2081