FAIRFIELD — The Solano County Grand Jury issued a report Thursday faulting a “small number of commercial property owners” who exploit the property valuation appeals process to put off paying taxes, in some cases for nearly a decade.
The report does not identify the commercial property owners who have paid what they claim is the proper amount of taxes, sometimes half or even a quarter of what the county assessor’s office deems is the correct market value of the properties.
State law mandates counties’ property tax rate appeals process must not take more than two years.
Grand Jury members found appeals still unresolved dating as far as 2009 and 43 appeals dating to 2015 and beyond. The total amount of property taxes in dispute, revenue the county has not received, is more than $3.8 billion. The assessor values the disputed properties at nearly $6.2 billion while the property owners claim the accurate value is only about $2.3 billion. Property owners do not need an appraisal or any supporting evidence to justify their estimate of their land’s value.
In some instances, a few property owners dispute the assessor’s valuation year after year, sometimes on parcels of vacant land.
The Grand Jury raised concern that the risk of procedural error, missed deadlines or pursing litigation involving the assessment appeals process could cost the county tens of millions of dollars.
The report recommended the Board of Supervisors and county lawyers take “all available measures” to end the “regular pattern or repeated, prolonged appeals that expose Solano County to unnecessary risk and potential financial loss.”
May 26, 2018
Fairfield Daily Republic
By Jess Sullivan
No comments:
Post a Comment