Existing law, until January 1, 2028, authorizes the establishment of a Green Empowerment Zone for the Northern Waterfront area of the County of Contra Costa for the purpose of building upon the comparative advantage provided by the regional concentration of highly skilled energy industry workers by prioritizing access to tax incentives, grants, and loan programs, among other incentives. Existing law authorizes the Green Empowerment Zone to be composed of 9 specified cities and the County of Contra Costa, upon adoption of a resolution by the city or county, and provides for the Green Empowerment Zone to be governed by a board of directors comprised of representatives from 7 stakeholder groups, as specified. This bill would extend the authorization for the Green Empowerment Zone to January 1, 2040, and would authorize the expansion of the Green Empowerment Zone to include 4 additional cities, including the Cities of El Cerrito, Pinole, Richmond, and San Pablo, upon adoption of a resolution by each city. The bill would make changes to the stakeholder groups who serve on the board of directors, including increasing the number of stakeholder groups to 8 by adding a category for 7 directors who live or work in the Green Empowerment Zone and who represent environmental or environmental justice organizations or interests.The bill would also provide a process for a legislative body of a city or county included within the Green Empowerment Zone to remove the land within its jurisdiction from the empowerment zone. Existing law requires a board chair and 2 deputy chairs to be selected by majority vote of the board of directors to serve 2-year terms. Existing law authorizes an individual to serve as chair or deputy chair more than once, but prohibits an individual from serving consecutive terms. This bill, instead, would authorize an individual selected to serve a 2-year term to be re-selected by a majority vote of the board of directors for up to three additional terms. Existing law requires the board to appoint a steering committee, and required the steering committee, on or before January 1, 2023, to develop metrics to be reported to the Legislature and state departments and agencies to gauge the progress of the Green Empowerment Zone, as specified. Existing law requires the Green Empowerment Zone to annually post information on those metrics on its internet website, as specified. This bill would change the name of the steering committee to the executive committee and would prescribe the membership of the executive committee. The bill would eliminate the deadline for the executive committee to develop and report the metrics described above, but would require the Green Empowerment Zone, commencing July 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, to post information on those metrics on its internet website, as specified. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Contra Costa. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing property tax law provides, pursuant to a requirement of the California Constitution, that the property tax base year value of real property that is substantially damaged or destroyed by a disaster, as declared by the Governor, may be transferred to a comparable property located within the same county that is acquired or newly constructed within 5 years after the disaster as a replacement property. This bill would authorize the county board of supervisors of any county proclaimed by the Governor to be in a state of emergency, or otherwise determined or declared by the Governor to be in a state of disaster, on or after January 1, 2025, but before January 1, 2030, to extend the above-described time period to transfer by up to 3 years for properties located in that county. The bill would apply to the determination of base year values for lien dates occurring on or after January 1, 2025, and before January 1, 2030. Existing law requires the state 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 those provisions, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law establishes the Wildlife Conservation Board within the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Under existing law, the board administers various habitat conservation and restoration programs. This bill would require, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the sum of $21,500,000 to be allocated to the board for floodplain acquisition, habitat restoration, and associated conservation projects on floodplains in the Counties of Kern, Kings, and Tulare, as provided. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for Counties of Kern, Kings, and Tulare.
This measure would call on members of the United States Congress to oppose reductions to funding that negatively impact educational services for students with disabilities and would call on the President of the United States and Congress to ensure that services and funding for students with disabilities are uninterrupted.
Existing law establishes the Richard Paul Hemann Parkinson's Disease Program, which, among other things, requires the State Department of Public Health to collect data on the incidence of Parkinson's disease in California, as specified. Existing law allows an individual taxpayer to contribute amounts in excess of their personal income tax liability for the support of specified funds and accounts, including, among others, to the California Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia Research Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund. This bill would also allow an individual to designate on their tax return that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be transferred to the Parkinson's Disease Research Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund, which would be created by this bill. The bill would continuously appropriate the moneys in the fund to the State Department of Public Health to support the above-referenced program relating to Parkinson's disease in California. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to revise the tax return form to include a space for the designation of contributions to the fund when another voluntary designation is removed from the form or there is space, whichever occurs first. By establishing a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation.
(1) The California Constitution generally limits the maximum rate of ad valorem tax on real property to 1% of the full cash value of the property and defines "full cash value" for these purposes as the appraised value of real property when purchased, newly constructed, or a change in ownership has occurred after the 1975 assessment. Pursuant to constitutional authorization, existing property tax law excludes from the definition of "newly constructed" for these purposes the construction or addition of any active solar energy system, as defined, through the 2025–26 fiscal year, as provided. Existing law provides the exclusion for an active solar energy system applies to the initial purchaser of a new building, as provided, and requires the initial purchaser to file a claim with the assessor. This bill would state a claim filed by an initial purchaser is timely if it is filed within three years of the date of purchase. The bill would also provide that an otherwise valid claim for exclusion filed after the three year deadline would be applied beginning on the lien date for the assessment year in which the claim is filed. The bill would make these provisions operative beginning January 1, 2027. (2) Existing law, with respect to supplemental property tax assessments, specifies various limitation periods for assessments on the supplemental tax roll. Existing law provides for the application of property tax exemptions to those supplemental assessments provided, among other things, that an assessee file an exemption application within a specified time. Existing property tax law allows taxes, penalties, and interest imposed for late filings of property tax exemption applications for the supplemental roll that exceed $250 in total to be canceled or refunded up to 85% or 90%, as applicable, in the case of the exemption for a college, cemetery, church, religious, exhibition, or veterans' organization. This bill would expand this reduction to be applied to exemptions for public schools, as provided. (3) Existing property tax law provides, with respect to property eligible for the college, cemetery, church, religious, exhibition, veterans' organization, free public libraries, free museums, public schools, community colleges, state colleges, state universities, tribal housing, or welfare exemption but for which a timely application for exemption was not filed, that 90% of any tax or penalty or interest on that property shall be canceled or refunded if an appropriate application for exemption is filed on or before the lien date in the calendar year next succeeding the calendar year in which the exemption was not claimed by a timely application. Existing property tax law requires, if an appropriate application for exemption is filed within 90 days from the first day of the month following the month in which the property was acquired or by February 15 of the following calendar year, whichever occurs first, any tax or penalty or interest imposed upon property owned by any organization qualified for the college, cemetery, church, religious, exhibition, veterans' organization, tribal housing, or welfare exemption that is acquired by that organization during a given calendar year, after the lien date but before the first day of the fiscal year commencing within that calendar year, if the property is of a kind that would have been qualified for the college, cemetery, church, religious, exhibition, veterans' organization, tribal housing, or welfare exemption if it had been owned by the organization on the lien date, to be canceled or refunded. This bill would add public schools to the list of entities eligible for the cancellation or refund of any tax or penalty or interest imposed on property acquired in a given calendar year after the lien date but before the first day of the fiscal year commencing within that calendar year. The bill also would make conforming changes. By expanding the duties of local tax officials, 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing property tax law permits, at the election of the assessee, the installment payment of delinquent taxes on tax-defaulted property under an installment payment plan. Existing law also permits a one-year deferral of payment under an existing installment plan if the county was declared by the Governor to be in a state of emergency or disaster due to a major misfortune or calamity and specified conditions are met, including that the installment plan was already in existence at the time deferral is requested by the assessee or the agent of the assessee. This bill would modify the above-described condition to be that the installment plan was already in existence, or that the taxpayer had submitted an application for the installment plan, at the time deferral is requested by the assessee or the agent of the assessee. The bill would also remove an obsolete definition from these provisions.
Existing law allows an individual taxpayer to contribute amounts in excess of their personal income tax liability for the support of specified funds and accounts, including, among others, to the California Cancer Research Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund. This bill would allow an individual to designate on their tax return that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be transferred to the continuously appropriated California Pediatric Cancer Research Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund, which would be created by this bill. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to revise the tax return form to include a space for the designation of contributions to the fund when another voluntary designation is removed from the form or there is space, whichever occurs first. By establishing a new continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. The bill would require that the above provisions remain operative only until January 1 of the 7th calendar year following the first appearance of the California Pediatric Cancer Research Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund on the tax return, except as specified.
This measure would urge the United States Congress to avoid any cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , which could harm the state's children, older adults, and families, and impact the state's economic well-being.
The California Constitution provides that all property is taxable, and requires that it be assessed at the same percentage of fair market value, unless otherwise provided by the California Constitution or federal law. The California Constitution and existing property tax law provide various exemptions from taxation, including, among others, a disabled veterans' exemption. Under existing law, the disabled veterans' exemption exempts from taxation part of the full value of property that constitutes the principal place of residence of a veteran, the veteran's spouse, or the veteran and veteran's spouse jointly, and the unmarried surviving spouse of a veteran, as provided, if the veteran incurred specified injuries or died while on active duty in military service, as described. Existing law exempts that part of the full value of the residence that does not exceed $100,000, or $150,000 if the household income of the claimant does not exceed $40,000, as adjusted for inflation, as specified. This bill would, until January 1, 2036, exclude service-connected disability payments from the definition of "household income" for purposes of the disabled veterans' exemption. The bill would also correct an erroneous cross-reference in the above-described provisions. By imposing additional duties on local tax officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. Existing law requires the state 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 those provisions, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
