Taxation: property tax postponement.

The Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens Property Tax Postponement Law, until February 20, 2009, authorized a claimant, as defined, to file with the Controller a claim to postpone the payment of ad valorem property taxes, where household income, as defined, did not exceed specified amounts. Existing law authorized the Controller, upon approval of the claim, to either make payments directly to specified entities, or to issue the claimant a certificate of eligibility that constituted a written promise of the state to pay the amount specified on the claim, as provided. That law required these payments to be made out of amounts appropriated by the Controller, as specified. This bill would revise and recast the provisions of the Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens Property Tax Postponement Law to, among other things, delete the Controller's authority, either to make payments directly to specified entities or to issue the claimant a certificate of eligibility, and would instead require the Controller to issue a property tax postponement payment on behalf of the claimant upon receipt of a specified verification from the county tax collector. This bill would authorize the Controller, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to use moneys in the Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens Property Tax Postponement Fund, which this bill would create, to make property tax postponement payments. This bill would require all sums paid by the Controller to be secured by a lien, which has priority over all other subsequently filed liens. This bill would require the Controller to prescribe a maximum annual postponement loan amount, and would change the rate of interest for any deferrals made on or after January 1, 2010, as provided. This bill would also make conforming changes to The Senior Citizens Mobilehome Property Tax Postponement Law and The Senior Citizens Possessory Interest Holder Property Tax Postponement Law. Existing law, on and after February 20, 2009, prohibits a person from filing a claim for postponement, and prohibits the Controller from accepting applications for postponement, under the Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens Property Tax Postponement Law. This bill would repeal that provision. This bill would, for the 2009–10 and 2010–11 fiscal years, authorize the tax collector to cancel any delinquent penalties and interest owed by the claimant for those fiscal years if a postponement claim is filed timely, as specified. The Senior Citizens Tenant-Stockholder Property Tax Postponement Law authorizes a tenant-stockholder claimant, as defined, to file with the Controller a claim to postpone the payment of ad valorem property taxes, as provided. This bill would repeal that law and make conforming changes to related provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.