Taxation: qualified heavy equipment.

The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to classify personal property for differential taxation or for exemption by means of a statute approved by a 23 vote of the membership of each house. This bill would, pursuant to this constitutional authorization, impose a tax on every qualified renter for the privilege of renting qualified heavy equipment in this state at the rate of .75% of the gross receipts of the rental price from the renting of qualified heavy equipment. This bill would require a qualified renter to pay and remit the tax, as provided. This bill would provide that this tax shall be in lieu of any personal property tax on qualified heavy equipment. This bill would require the tax to be administered by the State Board of Equalization and to be collected pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Fee Collection Procedures Law. This bill would require all revenues, interest, penalties, and other amounts, less refunds and the board's costs of administration, derived from the imposition of the tax to be deposited in the General Fund. Existing property tax law requires the county auditor, in each fiscal year, to allocate property tax revenue to local jurisdictions in accordance with specified formulas and procedures, and generally requires that each jurisdiction be allocated an amount equal to the total of the amount of revenue allocated to that jurisdiction in the prior fiscal year, subject to certain modifications, and that jurisdiction's portion of the annual tax increment, as defined. Existing property tax law also reduces the amounts of ad valorem property tax revenue that would otherwise be annually allocated to the county, cities, and special districts pursuant to these general allocation requirements by requiring, for purposes of determining property tax revenue allocations in each county for the 1992–93 and 1993–94 fiscal years, that the amounts of property tax revenue deemed allocated in the prior fiscal year to the county, cities, and special districts be reduced in accordance with certain formulas. It requires that the revenues not allocated to the county, cities, and special districts as a result of these reductions be transferred to the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund in that county for allocation to school districts, community college districts, and the county office of education. This bill would, for the 2015–16 fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter, require the county auditor to increase the total amount of ad valorem property tax revenue that is otherwise required to be allocated among the county and each city and special district in the county by the qualified heavy equipment reimbursement amount, as defined, and to commensurately decrease the amount of ad valorem property tax revenue that is otherwise required to be allocated to the county Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund and, if necessary, the amount of those revenue otherwise required to be allocated to school districts, as specified, by the qualified heavy equipment reimbursement amount. By expanding the application of the Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, and by imposing new duties upon local officials in the allocation of ad valorem property tax revenues, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. Section 2229 of the Revenue and Taxation Code requires the Legislature to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2229 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill.