Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Court Construes Proposition 60

In Wunderlich v County of Santa Cruz (here), the court asked and answered the following question: "When an applicant for Proposition 60 tax relief builds a new residence on land purchased years earlier, is the value of the replacement dwelling calculated using the land’s current value (its fair market value when construction is complete) or the land’s historic value (its base year value under Proposition 13)? We conclude that the land must be valued currently, as of the date that construction of the structure is completed." While there was both a separate concurring and a dissenting opinion, the case involves a fairly narrow issue of property tax law. So it may be an unlikely candidate for Supreme Court review.

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