AB 271: Property Assessed Clean Energy program.

(1)Existing law authorizes applicants, defined as including specified public agencies, entities administering Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing programs on behalf of and with the written consent of public agencies, or financial institutions, to assist property owners in financing the installation of distributed generation renewable energy sources, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, or energy or water efficiency improvements through the issuance of PACE bonds that are secured by voluntary contractual assessments, voluntary special taxes, or special taxes on property, collectively known as PACE assessments.

When foreclosure actions are ordered by a local agency or legislative body, or when subsequent installments and interest that are also to be made the subject of a foreclosure action thereafter become delinquent, and the foreclosure action is not commenced and a notice of pendency of action is not concurrently recorded, prior to the actual removal of a delinquent installment from the tax roll, existing law requires the local agency or legislative body responsible for the foreclosure action on the delinquent installment to record or cause to have recorded in the county recorders office in the county in which the real property is located a Notice of Intent to Remove Delinquent Special Tax Installment from the Tax Roll.

This bill would authorize the county tax collector to direct the county auditor to remove a delinquent installment based on a PACE assessment from the countys secured tax roll, rolls, if it arises from a contract entered into on or after January 1, 2018. The bill would require the county tax collector, immediately upon that removal and for each parcel for which the delinquent installment was removed, to provide notice on the secured tax roll rolls of the removal.

(2)Under existing law, property taxes, if unpaid by specified dates, incur specified delinquency and redemption penalties.

This bill would require, as to PACE assessments arising from contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2018, except for PACE assessments subject to specified law which requires deposit in a tax losses reserve fund, that specified penalties and costs, whether collected on the secured tax roll or pursuant to a sale or foreclosure, penalties be deposited in a restricted county fund. fund when collected by the tax collector, or that those penalties be remitted to the tax collector for deposit in that fund when collected by any party other than the tax collector. The bill would require the county in possession of the fund to appropriate those moneys only for the purpose of offsetting general fund property tax revenues of local taxing agencies that are lost when a that moneys in the fund be transferred to the delinquent tax sale trust fund for the deficit amount, to be distributed pursuant to specified law if any property subject to a PACE assessment is sold at a tax defaulted land sale for less than a specified minimum price. The bill also would exempt provide that those PACE assessments removed from the tax roll pursuant to paragraph (1), above, from those would not accrue further penalties.

Because this bill would require counties to deposit those penalties and other specified costs in specified funds, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.