Nearly a decade after California lawmakers sharply reduced the power of the state Board of Equalization, the once-dominant tax agency is again attracting serious political interest — including from sitting state legislators seeking its elected seats.
Three current state lawmakers are running this year for the Board of Equalization, the nation’s only elected tax board. They are part of a field of roughly two dozen candidates pursuing the board’s four district-based seats.
The office has long served as a steppingstone in California politics. Fiona Ma held a seat before becoming state treasurer, while Betty Yee and Malia Cohen served on the board before winning election as state controller.
The Board of Equalization dates to an 1879 constitutional amendment that created it to make county property tax assessments more consistent across California. Over time, the agency grew far beyond that original mission, eventually collecting about one-third of the state’s tax revenue and hearing appeals from taxpayers and businesses disputing tax bills.
Governors from both parties tried unsuccessfully to eliminate the board, including Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger. But the agency survived until 2017, when allegations that board members had used public resources to promote themselves led to a state audit and major legislative action.
Then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that stripped the board of most of its authority, leaving it with only the responsibilities spelled out in the state Constitution. The law also created two new departments under the governor: one to collect sales and use taxes and another to handle taxpayer appeals.
After the reorganization, Board of Equalization races became far less prominent. Ted Gaines, a former Republican lawmaker from the Sacramento area, won a seat. Former Democratic Assemblymember Sally Lieber also joined the board and is now seeking reelection. Other current members came from local government rather than the state Capitol.
Lieber, who represents District 2, a 19-county region centered on the Bay Area, said the board still serves a meaningful purpose.
“We’re lean but we’re not mean,” Lieber said. “I think the Board of Equalization is the right size in the system right now. I do really believe that the board has a role to play in being a forum for taxpayers to come forward to.”
This year’s races are expected to be more competitive.
In District 1, which covers inland California, Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove of Bakersfield enters the race with more than $900,000 in her campaign account and name recognition built through service in the Legislature since 2010. Democrats are also contesting the seat, with Fresno City Councilmember Nelson Esparza running with party support.
In District 2, Lieber faces San Mateo Community College District Trustee John Pimentel. Lieber has the state Democratic Party’s endorsement, while Pimentel has support from several Bay Area Democratic figures, including Treasurer Ma and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
In District 3, which represents the Los Angeles area, former Monterey Park City Councilmember Yvonne Yiu has contributed $760,000 of her own money to the campaign and has about $1 million available. She faces Assemblymember Mike Gipson, a Gardena Democrat who has served in the Legislature since 2014.
District 4, which includes the San Diego region and parts of Southern California, has drawn a crowded field. Candidates include Democratic state Sen. Tom Umberg of Santa Ana, San Ysidro school board member Martín Arias, San Diego Unified School District board member Cody Peterson and Republican Denis Bilodeau, who is backed by Assemblymember Carl DeMaio’s Reform California organization.
Taxpayer advocacy groups have long supported the board because it provides an elected forum focused specifically on tax issues.
“It’s a very useful elected body that answers to the voters,” said Susan Shelley, vice president of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
Some candidates say the downsized agency could still do more for Californians.
Arias said the board should play a larger role in helping homeowners and prospective homeowners understand the system. As a taxpayer advocate in the San Diego County Assessor’s Office, he said he works with the Board of Equalization regularly.
“I think there’s a bigger opportunity here to make the Board of Equalization the constitutional office that it is — that it should be,” Arias said. “There’s a clear opportunity here for us to start advocating at the state level for all of our taxpayers, including those that don’t speak English.”
Umberg said he wants the board to have stronger investigative authority and more resources, particularly when overseeing county property tax assessors. He pointed to past felony cases involving assessors in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties as examples of why oversight matters.
“Although it’s not a high-profile job, it’s a critically important job, especially when we’ve got so many revenue challenges in California,” Umberg said in an interview with CalMatters.
Not everyone agrees the board should continue to exist. Yee, who served on the Board of Equalization from 2004 to 2014, has called for abolishing it entirely. She argues its remaining duties could be handled by another state department or agency.
“I just really do question how this board continues to have relevance,” Yee told CalMatters. “I sometimes feel like the board is really doing a lot of work in search of finding problems to solve. I know with each of the board members, they feel very strongly about being a taxpayer advocate. But frankly, every public official should be a taxpayer advocate.”
Democratic lawmakers did not eliminate the board in 2017 because doing so would have required voter approval.
Mark DeSio, a former communications director for the board, said lawmakers should have gone further.
“They should have just chopped the head of the snake off and done away with the Board of Equalization altogether,” DeSio said. “They didn’t do that. They left enough of the cancer to grow back.”
DeSio cooperated with the audits that found misspending intended to raise elected members’ profiles and widespread nepotism in hiring. He later lost his job during the reorganization and filed a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against the state.
He said he believes some lawmakers are now drawn to the board because it offers visibility while they position themselves for future campaigns.
“That was the recipe for disaster a few years back,” DeSio said. “Somebody better watch these guys. They’re not there for the policy. It’s for the exposure.”
Original source: CalMatters
