1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 8 JULY 13, 2010 9 10 PROPERTY TAX COMMITTEE 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Reported by: Juli Price Jackson 20 No. CSR 5214 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 1 2 P R E S E N T 3 4 For the Board Michelle Steel of Equalization: Chair 5 6 Betty T. Yee Member 7 Barbara Alby 8 Acting Member 9 Jerome E. Horton Member 10 Marcy Jo Mandel 11 Appearing for John Chiang, State Controller 12 (per Government Code Section 7.9) 13 Joann Richmond 14 Clerk, Board Proceedings Division 15 16 17 For the Board of Equalization: Dean Kinnee Property and Special 18 Taxes Department 19 20 ---oOo--- 21 22 SPEAKERS 23 NAME PAGE 24 Joel Butler 5 Yolo County Assessor 25 ---o0o--- 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 JULY 13, 2010 4 ---oOo--- 5 MS. YEE: Our next item, Ms. Richmond? 6 MS. RICHMOND: Our next item on this morning's 7 agenda is the Property Tax Committee. Ms. Steel is the 8 Chair of that committee. 9 Ms. Steel. 10 MS. STEEL: Thank you very much. 11 We have two items on our agenda. First one is 12 adoption of form BOE-502-A, Preliminary Change of 13 Ownership Report and form BOE-502-AH, Change in 14 Ownership Statement. 15 And Mr. Dean Kinnee is going to explain to us. 16 MR. KINNEE: Good morning, Board Members, Dean 17 Kinnee with the Property and Special Taxes Department. 18 Before you today is the Preliminary Change of 19 Ownership Report and Change of Ownership Statement. 20 These are the forms taxpayers use to report to the 21 assessors, information necessary to appraise their 22 property following a change of ownership. 23 Historically, the peak core has been embedded 24 in the statutes, which has limited staff's ability to 25 work with interested parties to refine it, make it an 26 easier to use form. 27 A 2009 Board-sponsored bill was chaptered into 28 law, which removed the specific language from the 3 1 statutes and allowed staff to work with interested 2 parties to refine the Preliminary Change of Ownership 3 Report. 4 Staff engaged in an extensive review process. 5 We engaged the California Assessors' Association, 6 California Escrow Association, California Land Title 7 Association, independent escrow companies, consulting 8 escrow companies and legislative advocates for these 9 groups. 10 We sent out three versions of the form, made 11 adjustments with the comments that came in. We had an 12 interested parties meeting in May. 13 The forms before the Committee and the issue 14 paper, there is no issues with any of the items on the 15 form but subsequent to the interested parties meeting 16 last Thursday, Honorable Larry Stone, with the Santa 17 Clara's Assessor's Office, sent a letter that I believe 18 all you -- all of the Members have requesting that a 19 definition be included in -- on page 2 of each form 20 under part 3 for the assumption of contractual 21 assessments. 22 We contacted the title company individual who 23 worked with us on the project. And he had no concerns 24 with adding a definition. He also had no concerns with 25 the definition not being added. 26 We've worked with Larry Stone's office after he 27 sent his letter in. We've tailored the definition. I 28 believe a copy was handed out to each of you. 4 1 You know, had we crafted this language before 2 the issue paper was drafted, we probably would have 3 included this in the form before you. 4 So, staff would recommend that you include the 5 definition under assumption of contractual assessments 6 to read, 7 "An assessment used to finance property 8 specific improvements that constitutes a lien 9 against the real property." 10 At this time, staff's happy to answer any 11 questions and we ask that the Committee approve the 12 forms before them with the addition of the language. 13 MS. STEEL: Thank you very much, Mr. Kinnee. 14 We have one speaker here, Mr. Joel Butler, Yolo 15 County Assessor. 16 ---O0O--- 17 JOEL BUTLER 18 YOLO COUNTY ASSESSOR 19 ---o0o--- 20 MR. BUTLER: Good morning, Madam Chair, Joel 21 Butler, Yolo County Assessor. 22 Yes, I was handed a copy of the draft by the 23 BOE staff this morning with their definition that the 24 Assessors' Association -- well, I'm basically with the 25 Assessors and this legislation has passed so recently 26 and implementation has actually not been able go through 27 the entire process of the Assessors' Association to make 28 a recommendation. 5 1 So, I'm here basically as an individual 2 assessor today. But we were here to see that this -- 3 basically this question and the request for a definition 4 get added. 5 I see that the BOE staff has put in a request. 6 It's not exactly what the Assessors' Association maybe 7 would have drafted, but I am fine with it and I assume 8 the public will be the ones that eventually decide 9 whether this is clarified enough for them to accurately 10 report. 11 And if it isn't, then we will, probably at some 12 future time, seek clarification. 13 MS. STEEL: Thank you very much, Mr. Butler. 14 Ms. Yee? 15 MS. YEE: Thank you, Madam Chair and thank you, 16 Mr. Butler. 17 I guess what I'd like to do is suggest that if 18 we see that there is more confusion than clarity that 19 results from this definition that we do try to revisit 20 it at the earliest possible time. 21 So -- but I appreciate the staff accommodating 22 the request to include at least some guidance with 23 respect to what constitutes a contractual assessment. 24 MS. STEEL: Thank you. 25 Any other comments? 26 Is there a motion? 27 MS. ALBY: Move the staff recommendation. 28 MR. HORTON: Second. 6 1 MS. STEEL: Motion by Ms. Alby and second by 2 Mr. Horton and this motion's been adopted. 3 And we have a second item. 4 MR. KINNEE: The second item before the 5 Committee is adoption of form BOE-64, Claim for Seismic 6 Safety Construction Exclusion from Assessment. 7 On June 8th of this year, the voters of 8 California passed Proposition 13, which made changes to 9 the constitutional provisions dealing with the new 10 construction exclusion for seismic safety construction. 11 Statute implemented -- statutes were -- took 12 effect June 9th. Staff has worked with interested 13 parties to update the form to reflect current statutes 14 for this exclusion. 15 I'll be happy to answer any questions that the 16 Board has at this time, but I ask the Committee for 17 approval of the form before them. 18 MS. STEEL: Don't have speakers for this. 19 Did you have any comments or questions? 20 MS. YEE: If none, I will move adoption. 21 MR. HORTON: Second. 22 MS. STEEL: Motion by Ms. Yee and second by 23 Mr. Horton and this motion's been adopted. 24 And this concludes our business, Property Tax 25 Committee meeting. 26 MR. BUTLER: Thank you. 27 MS. STEEL: Thank you. 28 ---o0o--- 7 1 2 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 3 4 State of California ) 5 ) ss 6 County of Sacramento ) 7 8 I, JULI PRICE JACKSON, Hearing Reporter for the 9 California State Board of Equalization certify that on 10 JULY 13, 2010 I recorded verbatim, in shorthand, to the 11 best of my ability, the proceedings in the 12 above-entitled hearing; that I transcribed the shorthand 13 writing into typewriting; and that the preceding pages 1 14 through 7 constitute a complete and accurate 15 transcription of the shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: FEBRUARY 10, 2011 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 JULI PRICE JACKSON 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 8