State Board of Equalization

The State Board of Equalization voted unanimously February 22 to reconvene a task force to recommend solutions to staffing problems at the BOE and assessors’ offices after hearing testimony about an effort that may be bearing fruit in Los Angeles. The board plans to reconvene the Workforce Planning Work Group during its April 26 meeting in Sacramento. The group plans to partner with the California Assessors’ Association and assessors representing large, medium, and small counties to “continue efforts to develop…

Deputy State Controller Yvette Stowers has been selected to lead the State Board of Equalization after Executive Director Brenda Fleming retires at the end of June, the BOE announced March 30. Stowers, who has represented Controller Betty Yee on the BOE and the Franchise Tax Board for many years, first must be approved by the Department of Human Resources, BOE Chair Malia Cohen announced. Cohen said that since the hiring of Stowers will not be official until the executive branch…

The State Board of Equalization voted December 14 to elect Member Malia Cohen as the new BOE chair effective January 1, and to retain Vice Chair Michael Schaefer in the role he has held for the past two years. As chair of the BOE, Cohen also will serve as one of the three members of the Franchise Tax Board. Cohen previously served as chair in 2019. She succeeds Antonio Vazquez, who has served as chair for the past two years.…

There was a 6.5 percent increase in property tax revenue received by local governments in the 2019-20 fiscal year, according to the State Board of Equalization 2019-2020 Annual Report presented to the board during its April 27 teleconference meeting. Chief Deputy Director Lisa Renati presented the report and noted that in 2020, the value of locally assessed property was $6.8 trillion. This is up from $6.4 trillion in 2019. The report states that the $75.4 billion in property tax levies…

The State Board of Equalization’s County-Assessed Properties Division will need to roughly double in size if voters approve Proposition 15 in November, BOE staff testified during the board’s three-day teleconference meeting held September 22-24. David Yeung, deputy director of the Property Tax Department, testified that the workload increase caused by the split-roll initiative “will be extensive,” as the BOE would need to revise many of its assessors’ handbooks – a process that traditionally takes more than a year for even…

If voters approve Proposition 15 in November, residential property assessments are likely to become less accurate as assessors are forced to shift resources to determining market values of commercial and industrial properties, Los Angeles County Assessor Jeffrey Prang said July 23. Prang, testifying during a six-hour State Board of Equalization informational hearing on the split-roll initiative, noted that under Proposition 15, assessors would be required to assess all commercial and industrial properties within their jurisdiction at least every three years.…

Los Angeles County Assistant Assessor George Renkei addressed the board to reiterate some of the problems assessors will face if the split-roll initiative is approved in November. Renkei said the Assessor’s Office currently reassesses about 6,000 to 10,000 commercial or industrial properties each year because of changes in ownership. Under the split-roll initiative, the office would have to reassess approximately 59,000 such properties per year. This huge increase in workload would require the office to hire and train approximately 500…