State senators, county assessor outline tax relief, outreach and legislation after Los Angeles wildfires

Los Angeles-area officials and state senators on Thursday outlined property tax relief steps and proposed legislation aimed at helping homeowners, businesses and nonprofits harmed by the January wildfires.

At a Board of Equalization informational hearing, Jerry House, director at the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office, said the office is using a “misfortune and calamity” reassessment program to lower tax baselines for damaged properties and is doing proactive parcel-by-parcel reviews in the burn perimeter. "Through our misfortune and calamity program, homeowners can have their properties reassessed at lower value while their homes are being rebuilt," House said.

The nut of the discussion was twofold: immediate relief tools the assessor can apply under current law and a proposed legislative package that would give counties and property owners more time and flexibility. Senator Ben Allen, a principal author on the senate package, told the board the measures under consideration would "extend the deadline for victims to file misfortune and calamity claims from 12 months to 24 months," lengthen the rebuilding window for transfer-of-base-value rules to as long as eight years, and extend special exemptions for damaged religious, charitable and hospital properties.

Why it matters: County officials described about 21,000 parcels inside the fire perimeters that received inspections, with a combined assessed value of roughly $33 billion. Many…