1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 8 JUNE 26, 2012 9 10 ITEM F2 11 TAXPAYERS' BILL OF RIGHTS 12 PROPERTY TAX 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 P R E S E N T 2 3 For the Board Jerome E. Horton of Equalization: Chairman 4 5 Michelle Steel Vice-Chairwoman 6 7 Betty T. Yee Member 8 9 George Runner Member 10 11 Marcy Jo Mandel Appearing for John 12 Chiang, State Controller (per 13 Government Code Section 7.9) 14 15 Joann Richmond Chief, Board 16 Proceedings Division 17 For Staff: Todd Gilman Chief, Taxpayers' 18 Rights and Equal Employment Division 19 ---oOo--- 20 21 For Yolo County: Joel Butler Assessor 22 For Sacramento County: Katherine Kelleher 23 Assessor 24 For Local Melinda Harrell 25 Clerk Placer County 26 Assessment Appeals Board 27 ---o0o--- 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 JUNE 26, 2012 4 ---oOo--- 5 MR. GILMAN: Okay. Now I'll move on to the 6 Property Tax Taxpayers Bill of Rights. 7 Before I go any further, I'd like to recognize 8 we have a couple of assessors in the audience today. We 9 have the Honorable Katherine Kelleher from Sac County. 10 I'd like to point her out and also the Honorable Joel 11 Butler from Yolo County as well in the audience. 12 MR. HORTON: Oh, fantastic, I see them sitting 13 there, together, no less. 14 Please stand let us give you a round of 15 applause. 16 Talking about a tough job these days, we want 17 to thank you for all the work that you're doing. 18 MR. GILMAN: I have one more, I'd be remiss if 19 I didn't mention Melinda Harrell, I believe the 20 pronunciation is, she's the Clerk of the Board for 21 Placer County Assessment Appeals Board. She also made 22 the trip down here to observe our hearings, so -- 23 MR. HORTON: Ms. Harrell -- there is she is, 24 all right. 25 MR. GILMAN: Okay. 26 MR. HORTON: Marker of the Board, that's an 27 important post. 28 MR. GILMAN: The local Board of Equalization, 3 1 so, the Assessment Appeals Board, so, she's the clerk, 2 so -- 3 MR. HORTON: Okay. You get nothing past the 4 clerk of the board. They're the keeper of the records 5 and all that good stuff. 6 MR. GILMAN: Okay. 7 MR. HORTON: I often wondered why politicians 8 even -- even -- are not nice to the clerk of the Board 9 all the time. Sometimes they're not, you know, it's 10 always amazes me. 11 My wife happens to be a clerk, so, I'm a little 12 sensitive to that. 13 MR. GILMAN: Thank you. 14 Okay. The purpose of the hearing is to provide 15 individuals an opportunity to present their ideas, 16 concerns and recommendations regarding legislation, the 17 quality of agency services and other issues related to 18 the Board of Equalization's administration of its tax 19 programs, including State and County property tax 20 programs, and any other issues identified in the 21 Taxpayers' Bill of Rights annual report. 22 We have one scheduled speaker for property tax. 23 We have Miss Lee Martin. 24 Miss Martin. 25 MR. HORTON: I saw miss Martin earlier. 26 MR. GILMAN: I did too. She signed in. 27 Well, we'll follow up with Miss Martin. She 28 had an issue that she wanted to talk to you today about. 4 1 She made the trek all of the way from Alameda County and 2 it's a shame that she's not here, but -- 3 MR. HORTON: Well, in that case, Mr. Gilman, 4 what we're going to do -- are there any other witnesses 5 on this matter? 6 Why don't put this over and come back to it, 7 just for the purpose of giving her an opportunity? 8 I did see her earlier. 9 Well, there's nothing to put it over to. 10 MR. GILMAN: Okay. And if there's any 11 individuals, again, same announcement -- that if they'd 12 like to come forward on a property tax matter, with your 13 permission, Mr. Chair, if they would come forward now? 14 MR. HORTON: I'm the sheriff now -- okay. 15 Let's her from our assessors. Come tell us how 16 the things are going in your county. 17 ---o0o--- 18 JOEL BUTLER 19 ---o0o-- 20 MR. BUTLER: Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. 21 MR. HORTON: Good afternoon. 22 MR. BUTLER: Joel Butler, Yolo County 23 Assessor. 24 MR. HORTON: Welcome again. 25 MR. BUTLER: Obviously, you're looking for a 26 depressing story, mostly budget news. 27 Staff is short and budget for next year is 28 getting shorter. Prop. 8s again are going to be up this 5 1 year. 2 We probably will be closing our roll sometime 3 in July, on extension, and are probably expecting our 4 roll to be down this year from last year. 5 So, there's not much good news on our side of 6 the river. 7 MR. HORTON: Well, there was a strategy to -- 8 to enable the Board of Equalization to assume some of 9 the responsibilities of the taxing of yachts and boats 10 and so forth and so on. 11 What's the status of that? 12 MS. KELLEHER: I don't know. 13 MR. BUTLER: There was a proposal we talked 14 about it in the Legislative Committee at the beginning 15 of the year. It takes a lot of coordination, though, 16 because now you're talking about trying to coordinate 17 with a State agency, the Department of Motor Vehicles, 18 or somebody, to take back over. 19 MR. HORTON: Right. 20 MR. BUTLER: They register the trailers and a 21 lot of other things. They register the boat itself. 22 And -- but the County -- local County assessor 23 tax -- does the property tax bill on the boat. 24 And there was some discussion, but we weren't 25 able to put enough coordination at the beginning of this 26 year to get it into a legislative format. 27 And, hopefully, we'll be looking at that again 28 next year. 6 1 MR. HORTON: Okay. I believe Mr. Runner is 2 going to be conducting a hearing again here in 3 Sacramento. 4 Any hot topics we should consider for 5 discussion? 6 MS. MANDEL: Board assessor days. 7 MS. YEE: Yeah. 8 MR. HORTON: Yeah, Board assessors. 9 MS. MANDEL: Just giving you a hint, Joel, 10 Board assessor days. 11 MR. BUTLER: Okay. 12 MR. RUNNER: Not to put you on the spot, but if 13 you have those, let us know because we are working with 14 the -- the organization at that point to identify those. 15 MS. KELLEHER: Okay. 16 MR. HORTON: All right. 17 MS. KELLEHER: Thank you. 18 MR. HORTON: Thank you very much. 19 MR. BUTLER: I will. And we thank the Board 20 for their receptiveness, both staff and Board Members 21 for being very receptive and communicative with the 22 Assessors Association. 23 MR. HORTON: Thank you. 24 MR. BUTLER: Thank you. 25 MS. KELLEHER: Thank you. 26 MR. HORTON: You're the reason California's 27 running these days. 28 Mr. Gilman. 7 1 MR. GILMAN: Chairman Horton, unless Miss 2 Martin has shown up, that concludes our Taxpayer Bill of 3 Rights hearing for June 26th. 4 MR. HORTON: Okay. Miss Martin, going once, 5 going twice -- gone. 6 MR. GILMAN: Thank you. 7 MR. HORTON: Thank much you very much, 8 Mr. Gilman, we appreciate your presentation. 9 MR. GILMAN: Thank you. 10 ---o0o--- 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 8 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 JUNE 26, 2012 I recorded verbatim, in shorthand, to the 10 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 9 constitute a complete and accurate 14 transcription of the shorthand writing. 15 16 Dated: July 24, 2012 17 18 19 ____________________________ 20 JULI PRICE JACKSON 21 Hearing Reporter 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 9