AB 920 would require line-item invoice of how counties spend property tax dollars
Sacramento - Assemblymember Philip Y. Ting (D-San Francisco) stood up again for government transparency by presenting AB 920 to the Assembly Revenue and Tax Committee. The legislation would establish the Property Tax Transparency and Accountability Program, a pilot program for participating counties that would establish new and more detailed information on county property tax bills.
“When I go to the grocery store, I get an itemized receipt. I can look at the per-pound cost of those locally grown strawberries, and I understand the tab. The same should be true with a property tax bill,” Ting explained. “Every property tax bill should list the top-ten expenditures, which is why I want to pilot it in three counties. If we can collect $48 billion in property taxes, we should be able to provide a receipt to every taxpayer.”
Currently, it is impossible for taxpayers to determine from their property tax bill what their taxes are spent on. Basic facts such as how much of their tax dollars are kept at the local level for important services such as schools, police, and fire are not accessible to the public. To fix this problem, AB 920 would require county governments participating in the pilot program to disclose on each property tax bill the different types of local public services funded by the property tax.
Because the allocation of local property taxes has evolved over time through legislation and voter approved initiatives, the property tax allocation system is complex, not well understood, unresponsive to modern local needs, and not transparent. Ting made broad strides to alleviate property tax ambiguity at the local level during his tenure as San Francisco’s Assessor/Recorder. With AB 920, he continues that mission on the state level.
“For many taxpayers, their property tax bill is one of the largest payments they make all year long. It would be unthinkable in any other “purchase” that they would be unable to get an itemized breakdown of what the payment covers,” Ting said after the committee voted 6 — 3 to move the bill forward to the Assembly Floor. “The participating counties in the pilot will have adequate time to work towards implementation so that we can identify best practices in maximizing local government funding transparency and use their experience as a model to be replicated in other counties throughout the state.”
Assemblymember Ting is the Chair of Assembly Democratic Caucus and the Assembly Select Committee on Asia/California Trade and Investment Promotion, and he serves on the Budget, Business, Professions and Consumer Protection, Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials and the Revenue and Taxation committees.
Contact: Carol Chamberlain
carol.chamberlain@asm.ca.gov
916-319-2019