Amador County – Jackson City Council voted 5-0 Monday on a resolution supporting a bill by Assemblywoman Alyson Huber that would clean up the property tax shortfall in state Triple Flip and Vehicle License Fee Swap programs.

The resolution authorized Mayor Pat Crew to send letters of support for Huber’s Assembly Bill 1191, “proposed to rectify the property tax funding loss unique to local government jurisdictions in Amador and Mono Counties.”

City Manager Mike Daly said in February, County Auditor Joe Lowe notified jurisdictions “that a regular portion of the property tax revenue distributed to county government and the cities within Amador County was being shifted to the Amador County Unified School District due to a change in the classification of the district” as a “Basic Aid” district, from a “Revenue Limit” district.

Daly said that “fluctuations in local property tax revenues and enrollment can change the classification of a school district” from year to year, from Basic Aid to Revenue Limit. Basic Aid districts receive 100 percent of their funding from local property tax. A Revenue Limit district “is entitled to additional revenue from the state general fund in order to supplement the funds received from local property taxes to ensure a minimum funding level.”

In 1992, Daly said, California Legislature “shifted part of the burden of education funding to local entities through the creation of the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF). Each county ERAF Fund gets a portion of local property tax revenues, which are then allocated to Revenue Limit school districts. “Basic Aid districts are not entitled to receive funds from ERAF.”

Daly said two state legislative actions in 2004 changed how “state and local funding is collected and allocated.” The “Triple Flip” replaced “a portion of local sales tax revenue with property tax revenue to allow the state to call this a new revenue and repay” Schwarzenegger’s economic recovery bonds. Legislation also enacted the “VLF Swap,” which “reduced the Vehicle License Fee payable to cities and counties and again replaced this funding to cities and counties with property tax revenue.”

Daly said under both, “the property tax revenue used to offset the reductions in sales tax and VLF revenues to cities and counties comes from property tax revenues otherwise required to be allocated to each county’s Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF).” Where ERAF funds are insufficient to make Flips and Swaps, the new law requires a “Negative ERAF” apportionment to counties and cities. “In this case the state then backfills” the property tax of Revenue Limit schools with state General Funds.

Daly said Amador and Mono counties are the only Basic Aid counties that do not have a community college district or other school district to replenish ERAF funds.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.