A legislative director for a taxpayers association says that a California bill regarding property reassessments causes some concerns.
Scott Kaufman, legislative director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said that while owner-occupied single-family residences in single-family residential zoning will likely not see any reassessment from the bill, tenant-occupied homes would not have protection under the proposed bill.
"The property tax issues in SB9 (and SB10) become more concerning when coupled with attempts at the local level to outright abolish single-family zoning (like in Sacramento, Berkeley, and other places)," Kaufman said in a statement to the Southern California Record.
The bill passed the legislature recently and requires "cities and counties to ministerially approve a proposed housing development project containing two residential units on parcels zoned for single-family residential development."
Kaufman said that this could become a significant issue for many people if there was a sharp decline in real estate values overall.
"This only works if there is single-family zoning," Kaufman said. "Prop. 13 protects you in your home but when ownership changes (or the property is otherwise reassessed), the reassessments could be staggering if the land is worth significantly more as something else."