Deputy Director David Young provided the board with a three-part update for the state-assessed properties division.

First, Young said audit field work is complete and audit results that include value changes will be brought to the board for action after internal review. Second, he described a heavy season of assessment appeals and said staff—working with legal partners—are attempting to resolve as many as possible before matters return to the board.

Third, Young updated the board on the private railroad car (PRC) tax administration: the board adopted PRC values earlier, and the resulting tax bills were mailed before the Oct. 15 deadline. He said the PRC billing represents about $12,000,000 in taxes that will be deposited to the general fund.

Young also recognized staff effort on an IT modernization effort for the State-Assessed Properties Division (SAPD). He said the project will be multiyear and requires significant staff time to document business processes and update computer systems; BOE is working with the California Department of Technology (CDT) and the Department of Finance on the project.

Finally, Young described BOE handbooks: the agency maintains more than 30 handbooks, actively reviews several (four under active work and a total of seven under review this year), and annotates handbooks when law or court precedent supersedes sections. He said formal handbook revisions generally proceed through an Interested Parties (IP) process that takes about 18 months for standard reviews and more for contentious updates.