The Cupertino Courier

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Tax equity passes; Cupertino's budget boosted

By HUGH BIGGAR

Cupertino and three other cities received a long-sought gift from the state this month in the form of tax equity allocation.

On Sept. 21, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 117 allocating $4 million to Cupertino and other communities while raising their property tax revenue to the state standard. The cities are to split the amount in exchange for pursuing annexation of county pockets of land.

"It's retroactive to July 1, which is also my birthday, and there couldn't be a better present for me and the city," said Mayor Richard Lowenthal, who has been working on the issue for more than five years.

"It's a huge win for the city and probably the most important thing I have worked on while on council," he said.

With the passage of the bill, this year Cupertino is to receive $1.97 million, a significant addition to a budget of about $36 million.

The bill provides tax equity allocation to each of the communities, which previously received the least amount of property tax revenue in California.

For now-obsolete reasons dating back to the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 as well as court funding, Cupertino and the other cities received about 4 percent in property tax revenue from the county rather than the standard 7 percent.

The cities have aggressively pursued changing that policy, leading to Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn D-San Jose writing AB117.

"This bill was nearly dead twice, and Rebecca Cohn really made it happen," Lowenthal said, adding he also made several trips to Sacramento to lobby for the tax equity.

"It's a significant accomplishment for us," Lowenthal said, "and the revenue will grow every year as property taxes go up."