Fresno County property tax bills do not provide enough transparency as the special assessment property owners are required to pay.
The Fresno County Grand Jury released its second report of the year on Friday, detailing lack of transparency on the special assessments levied by school districts.
Driving the news: A Fresno County property owner filed a complaint with the Grand Jury over concerns that the property tax bill did not provide an adequate explanation of the special assessment after contacting both the school district and the Fresno County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office.
- Property tax bills include special assessments for voter-approved bond measures, such as Measure H – the $500 million bond for Fresno Unified that voters approved last November.
- Per the Grand Jury report, an example Fresno County residence only had five special assessment line items on its property tax bill in 1995 but had 28 by 2024.
The big picture: The Grand Jury said in the report that property owners should be able to inquire and receive answers about the special assessments on their property tax bills.
- While the county included a contact phone number for each special assessment during the 2020 billing cycle, some of those numbers are non-functional, and some of them have not changed since 2020, leading the Grand Jury to wonder if those numbers have not been working for four years.
- The Grand Jury called school districts with questions about special assessments, but district personnel were unable to answer them.
- The Grand Jury also said the county should provide information on all bonds online, with the website address printed on property tax bills. The Grand Jury was unable to find any information about special assessments on the county’s website.
What they’re saying: The Grand Jury said in its report that it was impressed with the knowledge base demonstrated by both Fresno County and school district personnel involved in developing annual property tax bills. And that transparency of special assessments could be improved with successful coordination.
- “Currently, transparency of special assessment taxes on property tax bills is lacking in Fresno County,” the report reads. “In its current state, the website of the Fresno County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office is of little significance to property owners attempting to gain insight into the cryptically-titled line items of special assessment on the property tax bill.”
