Governor Schwarzenegger began the
year with his proposal for the State budget, which begins
in July of this year. Throughout the State, he plans to divert $1.3 billion from property
taxes to the schools. If accepted by the legislature, this would mean further reductions
in County revenues and budgets.
Other areas of particular local interest include the proposal to
divert $1 billion from Prop. 42 funds earmarked by the voters for transportation to other
use. There are also various health care proposals to reduce eligibility for MediCal and
other health benefits, and to reduce the amount reimbursed to health care providers for
their services.
Last week, I discussed the budget with local Rotarians. Several
questions arose regarding our various County departments, the services they provide and
why they were important. Over the next several months, I thought that I would take readers
on a tour of some County departments. I will start with two of our important revenue
producing departments – the County Assessor’s office and the County Treasury.
Mike Mallory is the Siskiyou County Assessor and his department is
located on the ground floor of the County courthouse. His staff is set at 21 under the
conditions and terms of a financial grant from the State. An Assessor establishes the
value of property such as land, improvements (houses, barns, etc.,) mobile homes, and
other property such as aircraft, boats and large machinery. This assessed value is then
placed on a list with all other properties called the “Assessment Roll.” This
value is used in the calculation of taxes by the Auditor-Controller who produces the
“Extended Tax Roll” that goes to the Tax Collector for preparation of tax bills.
The Assessor is responsible for an annual assessment roll of nearly
56,000 accounts with a value in excess of $2.9 billion. The annual workload includes about
5,500 appraisals called for under Proposition 13 for a change in ownership or new
construction. [Proposition 13 establishes that increases in property values for the
purposes of assessment will be held to 2% per year for inflation. Property may be
reassessed when there is new construction or a change in ownership. The tax rate on the
assessed value is 1% plus local special district assessments and levies.]
The Assessor’s office also appraises approximately 10,000
commercial, industrial, agricultural, mineral, possessory interest and personal property
accounts each year. In addition, the department is responsible for applying more than
10,000 homeowner exemptions with a value of $72 million, as well as 275 other exemptions
(welfare, religious, disabled, veterans, etc) valuing more than $90 million.
Susan Reather is the Treasurer – Tax Collector of Siskiyou
County. Her office is located on the second floor of the County courthouse in Yreka and
she has nine folks on her staff, (the same number as in 1983.) The Treasury provides
financial services to the county, schools and special districts (fire, sewer and water.)
“Financial services” include depositing of funds, reconciling and balancing of
funds. The department also verifies State and Federal deposits.
The Treasury manages investments for the county and other
governmental bodies.
The “portfolio” of investments may exceed $55,000,000 at
times. Investments are made with safety, liquidity, timing and highest possible yield in
mind. Last year, the investments yielded more than $1.4 million in interest. A Treasury
Oversight Committee was established in 1995. Their function is to “oversee” or
watchdog the Investment Policy and may cause an audit to be performed.
One of the primary functions of the Treasury is to collect taxes for the County and
more than 20 special districts. Once the Extended Tax Roll is received from the
Auditor-Controller, the Tax Collector prepares, prints and mails the tax bill. It also
receives tax payments and compares them with the bills. The department of the
Auditor-Controller is the place where funds are actually distributed to the various
districts and government bodies.
The Treasury collects
more than $31,000,000 in current and delinquent taxes. These taxes generate about 28% of
the revenue in the County General Fund – approximately $7,200,000. (This is the money
that would be further reduced under the Governor’s proposal.) All in all, tax
collections amount to more than 100,000 actual payments a year.
The department also issues more than 1,250 business licenses each
year and monitors and reports the data. It collects and audits Transient Occupancy Tax
(TOT or motel tax) and receipts of motels and vacation rentals in the unincorporated areas
of the county. (In 2001-2 this amounted to $472,582.) It handles the landfill fees, daily
court fee collection, collection of levies such as for solid waste.
Both the Treasury and the Assessor’s departments frequently
furnish information to the public and other government agencies. The departments continue
to move forward toward improvement of access to records through automation, use of the
internet and acceptance of credit cards for payments.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.co.siskiyou.ca.us/ttax/index.htm and
http://www.co.siskiyou.ca.us/assessor/index.htm
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