Santa Clara County homeowners and businesses will have to pay hundreds of dollars in fees to challenge how much they pay in property taxes every year.
The Board of Supervisors on Feb. 9 unanimously approved charging single-family home and condo owners $290 to appeal the county assessor’s determination of their property value, which in turn determines the taxes homeowners pay on their property. The $290 fee will also apply to owners of townhomes and multifamily properties with four homes or fewer, as well as agricultural land and vacant land appeals.
County leaders will also charge $675 for appeals on commercial, industrial and multifamily apartment properties with more than four homes. They argue the appeals process is takes up time and resources that the county budget doesn’t have as it absorbs massive federal funding losses. If approved, the new fees would bring in $3.4 million in revenue per year — largely covering the $3.5 million cost to run the assessment appeals program annually.
The fee was not proposed by the Assessor’s Office but by the county clerk, which processes assessment appeal filings.
“We are one of the minority counties that does not have an assessment appeals fee,” County Executive James Williams said before the vote.
The decision came despite letters and public comments raising concerns the county was yet again putting another bill on taxpayers.
“The proposed non-refundable fees — $290 for homeowners and $675 for commercial and multifamily property owners — are unreasonably high and would create a serious barrier for residents and business owners seeking to challenge potentially inaccurate property assessments,” licensed Realtor Milo Abadilla wrote to supervisors in one of dozens of letters from residents.The appeals process is a core county function that is already supported through existing tax revenues. Adding a large upfront, nonrefundable fee effectively penalizes taxpayers for exercising their right to ensure fair and accurate assessments.”
Critics added that Santa Clara County’s fees would land among the highest across California counties. Los Angeles County charges about $50 and San Francisco County charges $120.
Homeowners usually make their check out to the county when paying property taxes. But Williams said the county — which runs Northern California’s largest public hospital system and faces a $470 million deficit next year — sees a nominal slice of the $8 billion in property tax revenue that’s generated every year.
“About two-thirds of every dollar goes to school districts and community colleges. A slice goes to cities, a slice goes to special districts,” Williams said at the meeting. “But the costs associated with the administration of the entire system are almost entirely borne by the county general fund.”
Williams said the $3.5 million cost to process appeals takes critical dollars away from other departments at a time of enormous fiscal strain.
“We’re essentially shifting funding away from core safety net services, away from county direct obligations, to then cover these kinds of categories of costs,” Williams said.
The county will study the new fee program for a year — by which point it’ll explore a sliding scale system of fees for business owners whose operations don’t make enough money to absorb the $675 fees.
Board President Otto Lee, who represents District 3, questioned whether successful appeals could have their fees refunded. His colleagues said that would defeat the purpose.
“Whether or not the appeal has been successful, the work has been done,” District 4 Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said at the meeting. “We need to account for the investigative time and analysis that staff needs to do in every case.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.