Senate Standing Committee on Revenue and Taxation

The Committee and Revenue and Taxation will come to order. We have one bill on our agenda which we'll be hearing pursuant to Senate Rule 2910 D. If there is a quorum present, let's establish a quorum. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

We have a quorum. We have a quorum. We will be. Thank you. We will be hearing from Senator Allen when he arrives. And at this point we're going to be. I don't know if I need to go into recess. Yeah, we'll go into recess until Senator Allen arrives. As you are prepared.

I'm so excited because it's going to provide me and easily recovery rebuild for victims of genuine wildfires we know that rebuilding after a disaster is a complex task. Residents have to grapple with insurers and they have to compete for contractors and permitting.

I've spent a lot of time up in the Palisades and it's been amazing to see how they've moved on from new challenge to new challenge. But one of the many challenges that they've been facing is just inflexibility and we're trying to address that issue here with SB 663.

The other issue that's come up is that current law lacks possibility for entities that receive special property tax exemptions, like churches, nonprofits, low income veterans after disaster.

So you get the special tax status by being a nonprofit, but if you don't have a nonprofit activity on the, on the property because the property's burned down, you don't get the special tax status. And so we need to give some people some additional grace there.

So we extend the deadline for victims to file misfortune and calamity claims through the Bill. We extend special property tax exemptions for up to eight years. We extend the time homeowners have to rebuild from five to eight years for the base tax year to transfer to the new construction.

We took some amendments from the Assembly that add the Franklin and Mountain fires from late 2024, which was absolutely fair and important to do. We extend property tax exemptions for low income disabled veterans. We add language.

We add language clarifying the authority of the assessor to revoke exemptions if the claimant is not using their property for a qualified exempt purpose. That was an important small amendment, but with that I respect the rest for my vote. No, I know.

I mean, this is, I will mention this, this bill is we've been working very closely with the LA County Assessor Jeff Prank on this bill. Makes me sad to hear you say that somewhat.

Quick comment, Chair. Mr. Chairs.

Any Members on the dais wish to make comments or questions? Yes, just a quick comment.

I know part of your comments were not caught on camera because we had a microphone issue. And I just wanted to just quickly summarize. I think it's really important, the work that you're doing to help the fire victims to get some immediate tax relief.

And that's why we're having a late hearing, because it is a priority to all of us. And I know you have a bipartisan motion already here at the dais. So happy to support today. Good work. On behalf of the communities that you're representing down there that have just been absolutely devastated by fire.

Any modicum of support we can give them, I think we should do.

Are there any witnesses in opposition? Seeing none, I think. I think the author. You know, I know that you've gone through a lot with this, and the initial Bill I think did a pretty good job. But it's good to see some improvements. And I will be supporting your Bill. And we had it. We've already had a motion.

The Bill is moved, and please call the roll.

Motion. Is that the Assembly amendments be concurred in Senators [Roll Call] 5-0.

This is a unanimous vote in favor, and the bill is out. The Committee on Revenue and Taxation will now adjourn.