Assemblyman Brian Dahle (R-Lassen) recently announced that he has introduced state legislation to address the unique circumstances for allocating certain property taxes within Plumas County.

    “Plumas County finds itself in a unique situation with allocating property taxes. I stand ready to work with county leaders and state finance officials to resolve the issue of allocating these property taxes in a fair manner,” said Dahle.

    Counties are responsible for collecting property taxes within a county and then allocating the proceeds under a very complex state formula to local taxing entities such as the county itself, school districts, cities and special districts.

  Supplemental property taxes represent those taxes generated when a property changes ownership during the year, usually having been reappraised at a higher value. Supplemental property taxes are allocated to all local taxing entities within the county; however, if all of the school districts are “basic aid” (meaning the districts rely solely on property taxes as a funding source), current law does not allow the supplemental taxes to be distributed to those school districts. Instead, these supplemental property taxes remain in a special fund in the county treasury.

  In recent years, Plumas County has accrued about $2.6 million in supplemental property taxes.

  “We thank Assemblyman Dahle for introducing legislation to assist Plumas County. His legislation serves as a commitment to resolving an obscure, but important, property tax situation,” said Plumas County Supervisor Jon Kennedy.

    With the assistance of the California State Association of Counties and the Rural County Representatives of California — both advocacy associations for California counties — Dahle introduced Assembly Bill 742. This bill serves as a placeholder for changing the law for the allocation of supplemental property taxes.

  In the next several weeks, Dahle and representatives of CSAC and RCRC will be working with Gov. Brown’s administration and key legislators to craft this legislation to ultimately resolve the issue of allocating supplemental property taxes.

  “As a former county supervisor, I know how important it is to resolve financial issues between counties and the state. County services are dependent upon sensible state formulas for awarding revenues. I am hopeful we can get this matter resolved for Plumas County in the next couple of months,” Dahle added.

    In November, Dahle was elected to represent the 1st Assembly District, which contains all of Plumas County.