Homeowners paying property taxes on time

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

From L.A. Times staff writers Roger Vincent and Marc Lifsher:

Despite the downturn in the housing market, tax collectors and assessors in Southern California expect revenues to stream at a normal or close to normal rate into county coffers on Monday, the deadline for for first installments of annual property tax bills.

‘So far, it looks good,’ says Los Angeles County Assistant Tax Collector Donna Doss. ‘I was kind of surprised.’

San Bernardino County Tax Collector Dick Larsen sees things pretty much the same way. ‘The housing market is definitely slowed down. The number of property transfers is down about 30% countywide, year to date, but our tax collections surprisingly are ahead percentage wise, maybe half a point,’ he says.

In San Diego County, Tax Collector Dan McAllister expects a 6.5% increase this fiscal year as compared to the double-digit growth during the last five years. His Ventura County counterpart, Larry Matheney, says his ‘collection rate is actually up, though not by a statistically significant’ amount. ‘I don’t think the county is going to get the big pinch from this until the decline in the real estate market has gone on for maybe another couple of years,’ he says.

Counties need to get used to normal to just below normal growth after a series of phenomenal jumps in the tax base, assessors and tax collectors say. Riverside County Tax Collector Paul McDonnell says assessed value jumped 22% on Jan. 1, 2006 from a year earlier, but grew only 17% the following year. Forecasts are for 8% growth in 2008, 4% in 2009 and 2% each year in 2010 and 2011.

Problems related to declining property tax revenues will be felt more accutely at the state level than at the counties, where supervisors tend to more carefully balance their budgets, McDonnell says.

Counties’ biggest fear, a number of tax collectors and assessors say, is that a revenue-strapped state government may try and raid county treasurers to back fill a projected $10 billion deficit for the fiscal year that starts in July. Such fund shifting, which was widespread in the early 1990s, is now illegal, but county officials worry that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators might come up with a new way to get their hands on county money.

But, if the housing market downturn deepens, the property tax revenue picture could darken quickly, ways Adam Aleman, assistant assessor at San Bernardino County. ‘Our county government needs a 10% increase in property tax revenues to sustain current spending,’ he says, noting that this year’s increase should be single digit, compared to about 16% last year.

Most people pay their property taxes at the last minute, which means they can mail their payments as late as next Monday. Final statistics probably won’t be ready until Friday Dec. 14, said L.A. County Tax Collector Mark Saladino.

“We’re not anticipating any significant decline in receipts,” he said. Payments are so far “about what I expected,” Saladino said. “The mortgage is the last thing people stop paying and the property taxes are second to last.”

Thoughts? Comments? Email story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com