(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (1) In recognition of the fact that over 50 percent of annual property tax revenues accrue to Kâ14 schools and county offices of education, and thereby help to offset the stateâs General Fund obligation to those entities, the state has a vested financial interest in ensuring that county assessors have the resources necessary to fairly and efficiently administer the county property tax rolls. Fair and efficient administration includes, but is not limited to, the expeditious enrollment of properties that are newly constructed or that change ownership, the timely levying of supplemental assessments when ownership changes occur, the timely reassessment of property to reflect market values, and the defense of assessed valuations that county assessors believe have been improperly appealed. (2) It is the intent of the Legislature to establish a three-year pilot program limited to nine competitively selected county assessorsâ offices to quantify the benefit of providing county assessors with state grants to improve their ability to discharge these, and related essential duties. (3) The success of the pilot program shall be determined based on whether the assessment activities funded with pilot program funds in each county have enhanced countywide equalization by properly valuing property, and have thereby generated property tax revenues for Kâ14 schools and county offices of education in an amount that is not less than the total amount of General Fund revenues expended to fund the pilot program in each participating county. (b) For the 2014â15 fiscal year to the 2016â17 fiscal year, inclusive, there is hereby created the State-County Assessorsâ Partnership Agreement Program, to be administered by the Department of Finance. (1) Program funding shall be subject to appropriation in the annual Budget Act. The program shall be inoperative in any fiscal year in which an appropriation is not provided. (2) Each participating county shall annually match, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, the program funds apportioned to their county assessorâs office. (3) Program funds provided to participating county assessors shall be used to supplement, and not supplant, existing funding. For purposes of this paragraph, base staffing and funding levels shall be calculated as of June 30, 2014, unless otherwise authorized by the Department of Finance. (4) (A) The costs paid under the program shall be both of the following: (i) Actual administrative costs for purposes of Section 75.60. (ii) Property tax administrative costs for purposes of Section 95.3. (B) For purposes of this paragraph, âcosts paid under the programâ includes both of the following: (i) Program funds provided to participating county assessorâs offices by the state. (ii) Matching funds provided by the county. (c) All counties shall be eligible to apply to participate in the program. However, the Department of Finance shall limit program participation as follows: (1) (A) No more than two program participants shall be selected from counties of the first or second class, inclusive, as defined in Sections 28022 and 28023 of the Government Code. (B) Each county selected from within the classes specified in subparagraph (A) shall be eligible to receive at least 25 percent of the amount annually appropriated for the program, not to exceed one million eight hundred seventy-five thousand dollars ($1,875,000). (C) If the number of approved program participants is not sufficient to meet the number of participants allowed under subparagraph (A), the number of program participants under subparagraph (A) of paragraph (2) may be increased by the remaining number of participants from this paragraph. The remaining funds will be added to the funds available within subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2) so that the total program funds will be available for distribution equally among the participants in paragraph (2). (2) (A) No more than f
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