Senate Standing Committee on Revenue and Taxation

The Committee will come to order in 30 seconds.

The Committee on Taxation, Revenue and Taxation will come to order. Let's establish a quorum. Secretary, please call roll.

[Roll Call]

We have a quorum. We'll now hear from Senator Perez. Welcome, Senator Perez. You may present your Bill.

Can you guys hear me? Okay. There we go. Thank you. Good morning, Chair and Members. I want to start my presentation by accepting the Committee's technical amendments.

SB293, the generational homeownership Protection act, will ensure that homeowners who have lost or sustained damage to their homes in a declared emergency can update their property transfer records without unnecessary barriers doing Trans. During the rebuild process. Altadena experienced the worst of the devastation from the Eaton fire, which destroyed nearly 10,000 structures.

While the physical damage was extensive, we didn't realize that many homes, particularly in Altadena's historic black community, were passed down within families, often without proper title transfers. For many of these families, the absence of formal title records has has created additional barriers to rebuilding after the Eaton fire.

Existing law allows properties impacted by a wildfire to be reassessed based on its disaster impacted value and also provides further protections to ensure that homes passed down from parents to children or grandparents to grandchildren remain exempt from reassessment to current market value so long as the necessary reassessment forms are submitted within six months of an owner's passing or official transfer date.

Without recorded property transfers, homeowners are ineligible to qualify for property tax exemptions under current law or receive financial assistance for disaster recovery. Families who inherited homes without formal paperwork may now face back taxes on the property in addition to the cost of rebuilding, resulting in an overwhelming financial burden.

To address these challenges, I've introduced SB293, which enables affected homeowners to update their property records without penalties. Specifically, this Bill extends the deadline for filing a property transfer under current law from six months to to three years, which will provide families with additional time to secure their exemptions.

It also prevents property owners from retroactive reassessment if their property was damaged or destroyed in a qualifying declared emergency, the owner has a clear title to the property and the property meets criteria for an intergenerational transfer under applicable statutes. SB293 is urgently needed to protect these families and preserve the cultural and historical identity of the Altadena community.

With me here to testify is Brandon Lamar from the NAACP Pasadena chapter and San Francisco Assessor Joaquin Torres. For technical questions at the appropriate time, I ask for an aye vote.

You'll have three minutes. Please proceed when ready.

Morning. We are. We, as in the NAACP of Pasadena, are in definite support of this Bill. Being someone personally who have been born and raised in this community and my parents have been in the Altino community. Actually, my family has been in the Altin community since. Since 1905.

And we know the destruction that has happened not only just from generations of homes, but small businesses. My elementary school is gone, my middle school is gone. And that's so many of our families within the Altena family.

But the real point of this is that Altena was one of the only places where the African American community could actually build generational wealth. And in our community, because of redlining, but also because of imminent domain of the 710 freeway and the 210 freeway.

So this is very particular within our community and this is something that we're definitely standing behind because we are, you know, at the end of the day, so many other people are able to create generational wealth throughout the years.

And this particular our community has been able to do that in the City of Altadena, which is why we are standing strong behind SB 293.

And so we ask that you support it to the best of your ability and so that we can continue to build generational wealth not only just now, but for the future to come in the City of Altadena. Neighborhood of Altadena. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony. Any other witnesses, please approach the microphone. You'll have to.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair Joaquin Torres, speaking on behalf of the California Assessors Association as the chair of the Legislative Committee for the Assessors Association of. California.

And just very quickly, I want to say thank you, Senator Perez, for introducing this important measure and especially the NAACP chapter, for being here to speak about the importance of this, to ensure that people's livelihoods, the investments that they've made in hard earned, hard work for property can be maintained, especially during a disaster.

I'm not able to speak in an official manner of support, but I wanted to just share the direction that the Assessors Association is leaning in of supporting this measure, given our track record of uniform support for fire relief measures such as this. Very much want to thank the.

Addressing the critical issue affecting property owners in the areas devastated by the 2025 fire disasters in the Palisades, Eaton, Hearst, Lydia Sunset and Woodley areas. It aims to provide, as you've heard, essential tax relief to fire victims during an extremely challenging time.

We believe that this Senate Bill 293 is an essential step towards providing this much needed relief by extending the filing deadlines for property tax filings. As was mentioned, the key aspect is a provision to protect property owners from losing that parent to child or that grandparent to grandchild exposure exclusion.

These exclusions are vital for maintaining family owned properties and the ability to claim them should not be jeopardized because of missing a deadline during such an extraordinary and extreme time for these homeowners. I just want to take a moment to recognize Jeff Prang from Los Angeles for his leadership in working with you, Senator and your team.

And we very much hope to be back with you later on with an official position. So many thanks to you as Committee Members. It's a privilege to be here.

Other witnesses in support, any witnesses in opposition or any testimony in opposition. With that, I'll turn to the Committee. Any comments from Committee Members? The Vice Chair is recognized.

I just wanted to say thank you for bringing this Bill forward and our hearts, our minds and our prayers continue to be with you and your community during this devastating time. This is a common sense measure that I'll be supporting.

Any other comments from the Committee? OH, thank you Senator Perez, for bringing this Bill forward. The catastrophic fires have taken lives, ruined homes and businesses and destroyed the dreams of so many, including a great number of your constituents.

Altadena is one of the state's most vital and diverse communities and I'm very, very sad and sorry to see the destruction caused by this fire disaster. Between your Bill and Senator Allen's, which I'm a co author, I hope we are providing some measure of assistance so that you can rebuild your lives.

And I'm happy to support this measure and I ask for an aye vote. The Bill has been moved. Secretary, please call the roll. Senator, I'm sorry you have a chance to close closing statements.

Thank you. And I just respectfully ask for your aye vote. Thank you.

With that I'll ask the secretary to call the roll

[Roll Call]

Is on call. Thank you. Next we have Senator Laird. Would you please have a seat and present your Bill?

Good morning, Mr. Chair and Committee Members. I'm presenting Senate Bill 333. It would allow San Luis Obispo voters to decide if the combined tax rate could go above 2% to support essential services. Several of the cities are close to this limit and there's a desire countywide to go to the voters for transportation tax.

The transportation tax failed with 66.3% a few cycles ago and they're ready to do it. And in case another city passed a tax in the interim or at the same election, it wouldn't allow it to apply countywide. I did a similar Bill for transportation in Santa Cruz that went all the way the session before last.

This is supported by every city in San Luis Obispo county, which let's just say is unusual. And I want to emphasize this Bill does not raise taxes. This still leaves it in the hands of the people. And if they are allowed to do a countywide tax, it's their Choice and it's 2/3.

With me is Gus Corey on behalf of the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments, acronymically known as SLOCOG. And at the appropriate time, I would request an ay vote.

Gus, you're now recognized for three minutes.

Is this on?

Yeah.

Thank you so much. Good morning, Mr. Chair Members. Gus Corey, on behalf of the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments in support of the measure. I just want to underscore what the Senator said. This is. It's not a tax increase.

It simply creates the capacity to have the conversation amongst the seven cities and the county to discuss what types of infrastructure investments should we be making in the county.

San Luis Obispo County is the only county along the central coast that does not have what's referred to as a self help sales tax measure where we're taxing ourselves to take care of transportation infrastructure.

This is critical because we have major arterials such as US101, which is only one of two north south arterials in the state that helps facilitate goods movement, tourism.

We've been sort of ground zero for some of the natural disasters, mudslides, you know, parts of the road falling into the ocean and such, you know, even up north in Monterey and the Senators district. And so it really is about disaster response, mobility for residents, even East West Connector routes.

And so we just want to allow our constituents to participate and discuss the opportunity and then at the, you know, at a certain time that they deem fit, they can put it on the ballot to pose the question before voters. And so for these reasons we ask for your support today. Thank you so much.

Any other witnesses in the support, please approach the microphone. Any Witnesses in opposition. We now turn to the Committee Members for comments or questions.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. And to the author on the natural red flags come up on this. Even though it's not a tax measure, we're just voting for folks to vote on a tax. I think what's absolutely amazing is in this council of governments you stated that you have 100% support from all the cities.

I don't know what you did, I don't know what you gave them, but I'd like to have conversation afterward. And the reason why this is so vitally important is because of the status of not being a self help area. And that eliminates you from a lot of dollars and a lot of grants.

So by passing something, if the voters were to choose to pass this, it really does open the door for them to take the money that they collect in taxes and leverage it to really grow that to take care of the needs that are within. So thank you very much. Appreciate whatever you did to get 100% support. That was pretty incredible.

Any other comments from the Committee Members with that? Senator Laird, thank you for advancing this Bill. It's clear that the citizens of San Luis Obispo county will be the best judges of whether they should be taxed or not. And this is basically does the same exception that the state Legislature has enacted in.

So I will recommend an aye vote on this. Would you like to close?

You just gave my close. Thank you very much. I request an aye vote.

Okay, thank you. All right, anyone move the Bill. Okay, Senator Ashby moves the Bill. Secretary, would you call the roll motion.

[Roll Call]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Vote is four to one. The Bill is out. Next we have. Let's see. Senator Allen. Is Senator Allen present? We now lift the call on item one, SB293. Secretary, please call the role of absent Members, Members that were absent at the time.

[Roll Call]

Is out. He's what? Okay, we hear that the Senator Allen is on his way. So we'll hold the Committee open until he gets here and can present his Bill.

Okay. The Committee will go in recess until Senator Allen is available. The Committee is now back in session. Back in Order sooner. Allen, would you please have a seat and present SB60?

Thank you so much. The Budget Committee is deep in discussion right now, so. So SB 663 is an urgency measure to provide immediate property tax relief to ease the recovery and rebuild for victims of the January raw fires that we experienced. The Palisades and Eaton fires, as you know, were together the most destructive in our state's history.

They erupted during unprecedented hurricane force winds. Santa Ana winds decimated the communities of Pacific Palisades in Altadena and big portions of other adjacent communities, damaging and destroying almost 20,000 structures through the region. Thousands of families were displaced.

So we've unfortunately gone through this before and one of the many, many things that we've seen from previous situations, similar situations, is that property tax flexibility and relief will be needed. Homeowners are navigating the trauma of losing their homes, securing temporary housing, filing misfortune, calamity claims, insurance claims, and the existing 12 month deadline can be really difficult.

And homeowners are now getting back to their homes. They're surveying the damage. They're trying to figure out the, the long road ahead, then having to deal with insurers and competition for contractors and permitting and where they're going to have their kids go to school and all that sort of thing. So.

You know, and we've actually seen with previous, some of the previous fires that only about one third of the 500 homes destroyed during the Woolsey fire have been rebuilt to date. And that was a number of years ago.

So, you know, the problem is that current, the current law lacks flexibility for properties in various ways that we're trying to remedy here with this Bill. One thing that we're trying to do also has to do with nonprofit organizations.

The law says that in order to get this welfare exemption you have to, the land has to be the site of certain eligible nonprofit activity. Well, of course, when the property's burned down, it's not hosting the nonprofit activity. And so they would lose their property tax exemptions if we don't pass this Bill.

So the Bill seeks to extend the deadline for victims to file misfortune and Calamity claims from 12 to 24 months, extend the welfare exemptions for up to eight years, extend the time to rebuild, the transfer the base tax year from five to eight years, and then it addresses this issue associated with nonprofits.

So we've been working really closely with LA County Assessor Jeff Prang on the Bill. It's supported by the County Assessors Association and the Board of Equalization. He's assessor Prang's not available today to be part of the hearing, but I think we've got San Francisco Assessor. Yes. Hey. Okay.

Joaquin Torres, who's here, he's the chair of the California Assessors Association's Legislative Committee. And I'll ask Assessor Torres to come up if he wants to say a few words. With the chair's permission.

Thank you. The witnesses in support are now recognized.

Thank you so much, Chair McNerney, Vice Chair and Committee Members. And again, thank you very much, Senator Allen, for introducing this measure. Jeff Prank sends his regards on behalf of the California. Association. And we want to express our full support for this, for this measure. SB 663 introduced by Senator Allen.

Again, Joaquin Torres, chair of the Legislative Committee for the California Association of Assessors. We're a proud advocate for this critical legislation which will provide much needed tax relief to property owners in the areas that I mentioned in the previous item. The fires have caused widespread devastation, leaving homeowners, businesses and entire communities struggling to recover.

The Senate Bill offers crucial relief by extending the deadline for filing a misfortune and Calamity claim from 12 to 24 months for properties damaged by these fires. Additionally, SB663 would extend the five year rebuild deadline by an additional three years. That offers more time.

Time matters during times like these for property owners to restore their homes and businesses. And as was mentioned, it also continues the tax exempt status for those properties for religious, charitable or welfare purposes without requiring future filings until the property is rebuilt.

These provisions are essential for helping affected property owners recover and rebuild after these events of the 2025 wildfires. And just want to thank you again, Senator Allen, the support of Los Angeles and President of the caa, Jeff Prang, for the work in making sure that we can move this measure forward. And we thank you and advocate for your support. Thank you very much.

Any other witnesses in support? Any witnesses in opposition? Now we turn to comments from Members of the Committee. No comments. Well, thank you, Senator Allen, for bringing this legislation forward. The January fires were devastating. They impacted thousands of lives. And this is just one more thing we can do to make that better, to.

To bring them back to whole again. So I appreciate you bringing this Bill. I'm a proud co author and I asked for an aye vote. Thank you so much. Mr. Chair.

Can I make one statement?

Could you add me as a co. Author onto your Bill, please? Senator Allen? Thank you

You're on there? Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's do it. Let's do it. All right. We'd be very pleased to include you. Yeah.

Okay. Senator Umberg moves. Will the secretary call the roll?

[Roll call]

Bill's out. Can now close the hearing. The hearing is now closed.