Marin County
Special to Marinscope
The regulating agency that monitors statewide county assessor’s offices has given the Marin County Assessor’s Office high marks for its work on the annual assessment roll.
The California State Board of Equalization performed a quantitative evaluation of the 2021-22 assessment roll compiled by the staff of Assessor-Recorder County Clerk Shelly Scott. The audit report, released Nov. 7, showed top-level compliance with state government codes, certifying the County of Marin’s continued eligibility for partial recovery of administrative costs.
A county assessment roll is a record of all assessable property including real estate, business, and personal property. The annual roll generates the property tax revenue that funds education, public safety, front-line health care workers, criminal justice, welfare, transportation, and many other city and county government services.
The Marin Assessor’s Office staff handled 104,799 assessments that fiscal year worth a total of $90.15 billion. Of those figures, 87,976 assessments worth $75.5 billion were of residential properties.
The state board’s deputy director, David Yeung, thanked Scott and her staff for their courtesy and cooperation.
“I am pleased that this audit demonstrates our commitment to uniformity, fairness, equity, and integrity in the property tax assessment process in the County of Marin,” Scott said. “I also want to thank my staff for their continued professionalism and dedication that has made this outstanding evaluation possible.”
When evaluating the County’s assessment roll, two things are measured. First is the average assessment level (ratio) for all properties. The ideal ratio is 100% with a minimum acceptable ratio of 95%. In Marin’s case, the average ratio was nearly perfect, within 0.15%. The second measurement is how much the assessments differ within the sample. The ideal difference is 0% and the maximum acceptable difference is 7.5%. In Marin’s case, the difference was also extremely close to the ideal, within 0.25%.
The periodic sampling and surveying by the Board of Equalization is considered invaluable to assessor offices because they ensure fair and equitable assessments statewide.
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