County assessors this week reported substantial assessment roll growth, indicating that local governments throughout the state will receive significant increases in property tax revenue this year even as individual property owners are protected by Proposition 13 from large annual tax hikes.
Last week’s edition of the CalTaxletter reported that Santa Clara County’s assessment roll increased 7.46 percent from January 1, 2021, to January 1, 2022, and Sacramento County reported growth of 8 percent.
Los Angeles County Assessor Jeffrey Prang, serving the state’s most populous county, projected 6 percent growth in May and is expected to release the official numbers later this month.
Counties whose assessors publicly reported their assessment rolls this week include:
- Contra Costa County – Assessor Gus Kramer reported a 7.79 percent increase in assessed value, bringing the total net assessment roll to nearly $251.71 billion. The 2022-23 roll is the largest in the county’s history.
- Orange County – Assessor Claude Parrish reported a 6.37 percent increase, to $721.25 billion. The growth was considerably higher than last year’s 3.47 percent increase.
- San Bernardino County – Assessor Bob Dutton reported a historic high of $288 billion in value, representing a 9.3 percent increase from last year.
- San Mateo County – Assessor Mark Church reported 8.34 growth, to a record high of more than $288 billion in assessed value. The assessment roll has increased $145.5 billion from 12 years ago. This year marks the 12th consecutive year in which a new historical high has been set.
- Ventura County – Assessor Dan Goodwin certified a record $162.13 billion in assessed value, up 7.3 percent from last year. Goodwin said this year’s increase is an unusual spike from the average of 3.9 percent over the past decade.
- Yolo County – Assessor Jesse Salinas reported that the roll grew for the 10th consecutive year, hitting $33.81 billion, a 7.23 percent increase over the prior year.
Under Proposition 13, annual property tax increases are capped at 2 percent unless there has been a change in ownership or new construction that added value. (An increase of greater than 2 percent also can occur when a property that had been in “decline in value” status, affording the owner a temporary tax reduction, recovers value and returns to its Proposition 13 factored base-year value.)