Riverside County abusing taxpayers

It is well known that all property owners must pay annual taxes on their real estate holdings. What many may not know, however, is that these property taxes are the main source of income for county governments throughout California. The Riverside County Assessor’s office determines the value, and thereby the taxes owed, of property throughout our county. Property owners are required to pay the full amount of the bill regardless of whether they believe the taxable value is fairly calculated or not. In most instances, the Assessor’s office simply increases property values by two percent each year. This automated increase does not consider current market conditions, and this can lead to taxable values that are too high. Under California law, property owners have the opportunity to challenge the taxable value of their property and can pursue a refund for any overpaid property taxes. This process, known as Assessment Appeals, allows citizens and their representatives to present verifiable real estate data to an Assessment Appeals Board to demonstrate that the assessed value established by the Assessor’s office is incorrect. An Application for Changed Assessment must be filed with the County to initiate the Assessment Appeals process.

When it comes to commercial real estate specifically, the Assessor’s office requests statements from all property owners. These property statements contain information concerning all types of commercial properties, including apartments, offices, retail, and industrial buildings. These property statements include profit and loss information and rental data that specifically identifies tenants by name and address and discloses how much they pay in rent. Once this information is collected, state law requires the Assessor’s office to keep this information confidential. The confidential data is entered into a database that is only accessible by the Assessor’s office.

Although the state of California requires that this data not be released to the public, Riverside County has decided that increasing tax revenue is more important than following state law. Throughout the Great Recession, the Riverside County Assessor overcharged taxpayers millions of dollars in property taxes. When property owners began to appeal and expose the unfairness of the Assessor’s office, the County was forced to refund a large portion of those taxes. This has contributed to Riverside County’s annual budget shortfall of $100 million.

In an effort to increase tax revenue, Riverside County is publicly presenting the confidential information collected from property statements in Assessment Appeals hearings. In these, as in all American court hearings, the government is required to provide due process for all of its citizens, which is simply the right to a fair trial and fair examination by both sides of all the documents and evidence used throughout the proceedings. Under federal law, almost all court proceedings are considered public, which means all of the information used by either side is subject to search and examination by any member of the public. Since these Appeals hearings are a matter of public record, presenting confidential information not only publicizes private taxpayer data, but also violates the taxpayers’ due process. In order to attempt to work around the law, the Riverside County Assessor’s office is presenting confidential rental information that is incomplete and partially redacted, even though the law specifically prohibits publication of any portion of these documents. By doing this, the Assessor’s office is illegally inflating property values by selecting the highest rental rates from the confidential database and presenting the information publicly at Assessment Appeals hearings as fair market rental rates. These tactics are robbing us as taxpayers, violating our rights to privacy, and escalating the distrust that citizens have of their government. This injustice has gone unnoticed by the public for many years, and it is time that we stand up for our community.

This unfair and illegal use of confidential data to increase assessed values was noticed by CRE Tax Appeal, a real estate assessment appeal consulting firm, through their representation of Riverside County property owners. CRE Tax Appeal was the first to challenge the Riverside County Assessors’ public use of confidential information and expose this government corruption. When CRE Tax Appeal brought this issue to light in a hearing in front of the Assessment Appeals Board, an employee for the Assessor’s office testified under oath that the evidence that the Assessor’s office was attempting to submit into public record was in fact classified as confidential, and the board then ruled that the confidential rental data was to be excluded from evidence. In response, the elected Assessor Peter Aldana and the Assessor’s office management have asked County Counsel, the attorneys that represent Riverside County, to create a way to defend the Riverside Assessor’s use of confidential information for future hearings. Although County Counsel has been defeated in court several times by CRE Tax Appeal and other firms that represent Riverside County taxpayers on this dispute, the management at the Assessor’s office continues to instruct their employees, and County Counsel, to break the law. As citizens of Riverside County, we have the right to fair and trustworthy representation by our elected officials. It is our responsibility to ensure that corrupt politicians, like Riverside County elected Assessor Peter Aldana, do not rise to power in any facet of our government, so it is important that we exercise our right as Americans to vote in our local and federal elections.

Please help to protect your rights to privacy and fair taxation by signing this petition asking the Riverside County Board of Supervisors to replace management in the County Assessor’s office.