1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 8 JANUARY 21, 2009 9 10 CUSTOMER SERVICES AND 11 ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY COMMITTEE 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Reported by: Juli Price Jackson 21 No. CSR 5214 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 1 2 P R E S E N T 3 4 For the Board Bill Leonard of Equalization: Chair 5 Betty T. Yee 6 Member 7 Michelle Steel 8 Member 9 Marcy Jo Mandel Appearing for John 10 Chiang, State Controller (per Government Code 11 Section 7.9) 12 Diane G. Olson Chief, Board 13 Proceedings Division 14 15 16 ---oOo--- 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 JANUARY 21, 2009 4 ---oOo--- 5 MR. LEONARD: Thank you, Madam Chair. 6 The Customer Service Committee will come to 7 order. 8 We have a brief report on the Taxpayer Rights 9 Advocate's Office annual report. It's comprehensive. 10 It's available now to you and the public. 11 And I wanted to give a chance for our good 12 folks to introduce. 13 So, Kari, Todd? 14 MS. HAMMOND: Good afternoon. Kari Hammond 15 with the External Affairs Department. 16 Today we do have one agenda item on the 17 Committee, the Taxpayer Rights Advocate's 2007-08 18 Business and Property and Business Taxes Annual Report. 19 Mr. Todd Gilman, the Chief of the Taxpayer 20 Rights Advocate and EEO Office is here to give you that 21 report. 22 MR. GILMAN: Thank you, Kari. 23 Good afternoon, Committee Chair Member Leonard 24 and Board Members. 25 Todd Gilman, Taxpayers Rights Advocate with the 26 Board of Equalization. I am pleased to present to you 27 the Taxpayers Rights Advocate's 2007-2008 Property and 28 Business Tax Annual Report. The report highlights the 3 1 accomplishments of the office during the past year, 2 describes our involvement in important new projects to 3 assist taxpayers, identifies current issues we are 4 working on to resolve and contains examples of cases 5 illustrating the services our office provides. 6 At this point, I would like to thank my staff 7 for the hard work and dedication in developing this 8 year's annual report, as well as the Sales and Use Tax 9 Department and the Property and Special Taxes Department 10 for their support. 11 If you have any questions, I'd be happy to 12 answer them now. 13 MR. LEONARD: We are pleased to receive your 14 report and thank you very much for your great work this 15 past year. 16 Ms. Yee? 17 MS. YEE: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 18 I also want to commend the Taxpayer Rights 19 Advocate's Office for the report, particularly the 20 specific highlights on cases and issues that have been 21 resolved. 22 And I think we are particularly appreciative 23 of -- especially some of the follow-up related to some 24 of the issues. 25 So, I think very helpful in that regard. 26 I did want to kind of use this opportunity to 27 express two things: 28 One, I know our Taxpayer Bill of Rights hearing 4 1 is coming up this spring. 2 MR. GILMAN: Yes. 3 MS. YEE: And I really have a preference to see 4 those hearings later on in the year. 5 I think that there's been a lot more interest 6 in them, certainly given this economic climate, and I 7 think the more notice we can get out about the hearings 8 and try to have broader participation, both in Northern 9 and Southern California. 10 And I know it jams you up with respect to 11 producing the report, but I do think that's really one 12 of the few forums that we do have for taxpayers, you 13 know, to come publicly before this Board. 14 Secondly, also as we go forward with the budget 15 constraints, I would like to see this office also be 16 involved -- and Kari, you've been involved just agency 17 wide on this -- but looking at how to do our public 18 outreach in a more cost effective way and whether that's 19 through web-based medium or other ways of getting 20 information out there about the Taxpayer Rights 21 Advocate's Office. 22 That's just something that I think as an agency 23 we ought to be just thinking about. 24 MR. GILMAN: Thank you. 25 MS. YEE: Okay, thank you. 26 MS. STEEL: Just one comment? 27 MR. LEONARD: Yes, Ms. Steel? 28 MS. STEEL: Yes, thank you for your hard work 5 1 and dedication to protect taxpayers and really 2 appreciate that. 3 MR. GILMAN: Thank you. 4 MR. LEONARD: I think Ms. Yee has made some 5 good suggestions. We should follow both. 6 With the consent of the Board, I'd also suggest 7 if -- in addition to our statutory annual hearing for -- 8 which should be well publicized and held, if there are 9 individuals that come to you with suggestions before 10 that, we can put them on this committee's agenda. The 11 Board can hear the concerns and we can call that as a 12 part of an ongoing taxpayer rights hearing. 13 MR. GILMAN: Right. 14 MR. LEONARD: So, you don't have to -- if you 15 got an idea today, you don't have to wait 'til September 16 to do it, if we ought to hear about it in February or 17 something. 18 We can -- we can make that a brief part of each 19 of these committee hearings to do. 20 MR. GILMAN: Okay. 21 MR. LEONARD: And we can serialize it that way. 22 Any further questions or issues? 23 If not, Committee adjourned. 24 Thank you two very much. 25 MR. GILMAN: Thank you. 26 MR. LEONARD: We appreciate the work of all you 27 and your staff. 28 MR. GILMAN: Thank you. 6 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 2 3 State of California ) 4 ) ss 5 County of Sacramento ) 6 7 I, JULI PRICE JACKSON Hearing Reporter for the 8 California State Board of Equalization certify that on 9 JANUARY 21, 2009 I recorded verbatim, in shorthand, to 10 the best of my ability, the proceedings in the 11 above-entitled hearing; that I transcribed the shorthand 12 writing into typewriting; and that the preceding pages 1 13 through 6 constitute a complete and accurate 14 transcription of the shorthand writing. 15 16 Dated: MARCH 11, 2009 17 18 19 ____________________________ 20 JULI PRICE JACKSON 21 Hearing Reporter 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 7