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Assessor and Clerk dispute backlog as audit finds appeals workload poses growing financial risk
Summary
The county assessor told the Finance & Government Operations Committee that delays in activating assessment appeals have left 11,165 active appeals with $35.5 billion in value at risk; the Clerk of the Board said the offices are working on dashboard and scheduling fixes and that the 2024 filing period had been processed.
Santa Clara County’s assessor and the Clerk of the Board traded sharply different diagnostic accounts of an assessment‑appeal backlog when the Finance & Government Operations Committee considered an internal audit on April 15.
County Assessor Larry Stone told the committee that clerical delays in activating appeals contributed to thousands of cases that cannot be resolved within the two‑year statute of limitations and that the problem creates “an unacceptable financial risk to the county, cities and our schools.” Stone said the assessor’s office calculates 11,165 active appeals with a value at risk of about $35.5 billion — which the assessor said translates roughly to $1.3 billion in potential property‑tax refunds.
John Derechio,…
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