Reductions for 3,300 property owners will not be as low as originally noticed
At 4:45 today the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors will hold a rare special session to consider Assessor Larry Stone’s urgent request that the Board waive the $30 filing fee currently required when disputing assessed values for qualifying applicants on a one-time basis only. Thursday morning, Assessor Stone concluded that his staff would not be able to complete the review of all requests for assessment reductions.
On July 1, 2009, County Assessor Larry Stone delivered to the Santa Clara County Finance Agency Director and the Tax Collector the completed annual assessment roll reflecting the assessed value of all property as of the lien (valuation) date, January 1, 2009. The total net assessed value of all real and business property grew by a meager $542 million, an increase of only 0.18 percent over the prior year. This is the smallest increase since Proposition 13 passed in 1978. “Too put this in perspective, the assessment roll grew by nearly $20 billion last year. In 2001, the apex of the dot-com boom, the assessment roll grew $27 billion,” said Stone.
Earlier today the Santa Clara County Assessor’s Office mailed more than 460,000 assessment notification cards, providing property owners the opportunity to review their property’s taxable value before the 2009-10 property tax bill is generated, and mailed in September. The Assessor has proactively reduced the assessed value of just over 90,000 residential properties, a temporary reduction resulting in lower 2009-2010 property taxes. The average reduction for each residential property is $170,000 and the total assessed value reduction is expected to exceed $17 billion.
