What is a parcel tax, how is it different than property taxes?
Question of the week: What is a parcel tax, how is it different than property taxes?
Answer: California, like all states, has property taxes. In California, property taxes are collected by the counties and fund public schools, infrastructure, police and fire services and government operations.
The general tax levy is 1% of assessed value. The assessed value, in most cases, is established by the purchase price of the property, and then can increase by no more than 2% per year.
In addition to the general tax levy of 1%, additional taxes can be added by voters, agencies, or by legislation.
State law requires a two-thirds majority vote for additional payments to be added a property tax bill; however, bonds to support education, i.e. school districts, community colleges, require 55% if they meet conditions set forth by Proposition 39, passed by voters in 2000.
Voted indebtedness calculates the amount of tax owed based on assessed value.
Parcel taxes are determined either by set dollar amount, or an amount based on square footage of the parcel.
For instance, a school district may have a flat $200 per parcel for residential property and $500 per parcel for non-residential property.
The other method, a local government may have on the ballot a parcel tax to pave streets and improve park facilities, for $0.15 per square foot of the size of a residential parcel and $0.45 per square foot for non-residential and vacant parcels.
While a good portion of California’s population continually attempts to see all, or part, of Prop 13 repealed to enable higher property taxes—which have thankfully been defeated—parcel taxes are a way to increase property taxes without having to alter Prop 13.
A real-life example of trying to raise money using property taxes is an attempt by several groups in Long Beach to raise money for a variety of issues with a parcel tax. The actual language on the measure for which they are collecting signatures, is such to define a very clear target voter base that would be unimpacted by the parcel tax, making it easier to obtain passage.
It is my hope that some day our electorate will realize those they elect do not have a shortage of revenue problem, but an abundance of wasteful and unnecessary spending problem.
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Retailers had to replace POS payment hardware after consumers wore them out in March as retail sales surged 1.7% over February’s numbers. A large part of the spike in spending was the 15% increase in gas costs, however, almost every sector in the data showed strong increases in sales. Energy costs, inflation staying above 2.5%, any concerns about expansion of the Iran conflict, are seemingly being ignored by Americans who are buying not only discretionary items like $25 Old Fashions and $15 cheesesteaks with onions, but also new living room and bedroom furniture, cars, and satisfying late night (unsober?) binge buying from on-line retail sites. Ordinarily, this surge would push rates higher as investors look ahead to higher inflation and faster economic growth.
Rates for Friday April 24, 2026: Rates have succumb somewhat to the economic data and international events, ramping up slightly from last Friday.
FIXED RATE MORTGAGES AT COST OF 1.25 POINTS LOCKED FOR 45 DAYS FOR PURCHASE TRANSACTIONS:
30-year conforming 6.00% Up 0.125%
30-year high-balance conforming 6.25% Up 0.125%
Please note that these are base rates and adjustments may be added for condominiums, refinances, credit scores, loan to value, no impound account and period rate is locked. Rates are based on 20% down with 740 FICO score for purchase mortgages.
Apologies for those who I have interacted with the past week or so and found me despondent, distracted, a bit testy. Our dog Sammy is trying to help me out of the funk. However, there is not much he can do unless he is able to pitch and hit for the Phillies and get them out of their 8-game losing streak and start a very long winning streak.
Sigh, baseball.
Dennis
