Assessor Phil Ting says office cleared multi-year backlog, estimates $85'$100 million in recoverable tax revenue

Assessor Phil Ting told the Board of Supervisors' Budget & Finance Committee that his office has largely worked down a backlog dating back several years and produced substantial new revenue for the city. "Basically, $30 billion of value added to our property tax roll, which is a 26% increase," Ting said, describing an influx of assessments driven by new construction and transfers in neighborhoods including South of Market, Mission Bay and Bayview-Hunters Point.

Ting said the practical result of the assessment work has been hundreds of millions of dollars in actual tax dollars flowing to the general fund. "If you just add those four green bars together, you're gonna get $2,800,000,000 in property tax revenue that got brought into the general fund," he said, and later translated assessment value into tax dollars: roughly $300 million in supplemental and escape collections over four years and "roughly, due to all this work, there was a $100,000,000 of increase brought in." He later characterized current expectations for recoverable backlog revenue at about $85 million as the office continues to close older cases.

Ting explained the difference between secured and unsecured accounts and the practical enforcement implications: "secured means the tax is tied to a property' . . . unsecured just means there's no property tied to it." He estimated roughly 90% of the roll is secured and 10% unsecured, noting unsecured debts are much harder for the city to collect once ownership changes.

Committee members pressed Ting on the drivers of growth and on quality of underlying permit and valuation data. Supervisor Mercarimi asked how much of the increase is from transfers versus new development; Ting pointed to concentrated growth in Mission Bay, Rincon Hill and South of Market and said he uses a consultant cost-estimating tool to better value construction that previously went under-counted. Ting acknowledged appeals remain the key uncertainty: "we are worried about the large commercial downtown properties appealing, and that's where it's significantly greater risk and significantly greater dollars." He said residential appeals can be resolved relatively quickly but that large commercial appeals typically involve multiple attorneys and longer disputes.

Ting asked the committee for continued support to maintain staffing through the fiscal cycle so the office can finish the last of the backlog and reduce the city's exposure to unsecured assessments. The committee did not take a final vote on policy changes but heard a staff-level briefing and directed that further monitoring and coordination with Controller and DBI staff continue.