Bell tax refunds not money in the bank

Los Angeles County’s auditor-controller has a message for the city of Bell: Show me the money.

Late Wednesday, Wendy Watanabe urged Bell in writing to promptly transfer $2.9 million to her office so refunds can be sent to homeowners whose property taxes were illegally hiked during the past three years.

“The refund process to Bell taxpayers is a high priority for Los Angeles County…and we look forward to your cooperation,” Watanabe said in a letter to Bell’s interim city administrative officer, Pedro Carrillo.

Watanabe’s letter was prompted by a surge of calls from Bell residents this week after state legislation was signed that cleared the way for the refunds, which otherwise would have gone to the city’s schools. The callers wanted to know when the checks would be hitting their mailboxes. Their expectations were raised when the bill’s author, Assemblyman Kevin DeLeon (D-Los Angeles), said the refunds could be mailed within a week.

Watanabe said she was driving to work when she heard that hope recounted by KFI radio host Bill Handel. “I said to myself, ‘Excuse me? Are you processing the payment? Are you paying?’ I almost stopped the car and called.”

“The auditor-controller does not have the authority to front the money,” she said. “I’m sympathetic but I’m not in any position to do so.”

Put another way by Watanabe’s top aide on the issue, Arlene Barrera: “We don’t have money just sitting around.”

Under the new law—signed Monday by Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was in Asia—Bell has until December 31 to transfer the funds to the county. The auditor-controller’s office, however, has been pushing behind the scenes for a faster resolution to help Bell’s homeowners, who’ve been complaining for years of exorbitant property taxes.

In fact, despite Bell’s largely lower-income population, its tax rate is the second highest in L.A. County—higher even than Beverly Hills. (See earlier story here on Bell’s attempts to undermine a resident’s meeting with county officials.)

The resident’s complaints finally got traction in July, when the Los Angeles Times revealed the scandalously high salaries of Bell officials, prompting a number of official investigations, including one by State Controller John Chiang. He determined, among other things, that Bell homeowners for the last three years had been charged for pension obligations that exceeded the legal limits.

In her letter to Bell, Watanabe said her office had thus far identified 4,772 Bell residents who continuously owned homes and paid property taxes during the past three years, making them eligible for full refunds of the unlawful levied charges. The remaining 1,258 properties, she said, have changed ownership during that period, meaning that the refunds will have to be pro-rated between the current and previous owners.

So far, despite official and back-channel conversations, Bell has yet to tell the auditor-controller’s office when to expect the $2.9 million.

“They said they’d let us know as soon as possible,” Barrera said.

Posted 9/15/10