YL's single Mello-Roos district pays taxes to Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District
“No Mello-Roos.”
That’s the wording used on billboards posted by developers to advertise new housing in Yorba Linda--and other cities, statewide--as well as in newspaper listings for re-sales of newer homes placed by local agents and brokers.
Obviously, “no Mello-Roos” is a major selling point for both new and existing homes, and the reason is simple: Mello-Roos can add significantly to a homeowner’s property tax bill for a lengthy period of time.
Orange County has 88 Mello-Roos districts, but Yorba Linda has only one, according to the most recent statistics available from the state treasurer, with the Yorba Linda Mello-Roos area paying extra taxes to the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.
The Yorba Linda Mello-Roos district--officially called a Community Facilities District--consists of 293 Pulte homes located on both north and south sides of Bastanchury Road, west of Fairmont Boulevard.
This year’s special taxes, adopted 5-0 by trustees at a July 12 meeting, means an extra $562,021 for the school district, an amount collected yearly since 2003 and which will continue to be assessed through 2032.
Individual homeowners pay from $1,603 to $2,613 per year in Mello-Roos taxes based on the square footage of their homes, in addition to the regular property taxes levied on each home’s assessed value.
The money pays for a $5.5 million bond sold to help finance school facilities serving the Pulte homes. The original 22-page agreement signed with Pulte provided for a minimum $4,244,317 for schools, with homeowners paying $3.50 per square foot on the 1,244,317 square feet in the development.
The pact was termed “an appropriate means for financing and satisfying the impact of students generated from the project upon the school district’s school facilities….”
The state began allowing Mello-Roos districts to finance public improvements with five or more years of useful life in 1982 to help replace tax losses due to passage of Prop. 13 in 1978, with a maximum tax rate not to exceed two percent of a home’s sale price.
The tax cannot be based on property value, so most Mello-Roos use a square-footage basis, and a district needs a two-thirds vote of property owners to be established. Of course, most districts are set up when the property is owned by the original developer.
A FINAL NOTE -- Last week’s column (posted at ocregister.com/yorbalinda) noted City Council’s action to keep the Redevelopment Agency alive by paying $4.9 million into accounts managed by the county auditor-controller to benefit local school and special districts.
The column mentioned that $9.5 million of the agency’s $21.4 million per year revenue is “passed through” to other taxing agencies that normally would have collected some of the increased property taxes if the Redevelopment Agency didn’t exist.
Now, the city has an Enforceable Obligation Payment Schedule listing $451 million in pass-through and tax-sharing payments due during the agency’s lifetime, including the following:
Placentia-Yorba Linda school district $297 million, Fire Authority $53.8 million, Orange County $38.4 million, other county agencies $20 million, Orange school district $21.2 million, Yorba Linda library $15.8 million, North Orange County college district $3.6 million, Yorba Linda Street Lighting $764,000, Yorba Linda Water District $370,000.
That’s the wording used on billboards posted by developers to advertise new housing in Yorba Linda--and other cities, statewide--as well as in newspaper listings for re-sales of newer homes placed by local agents and brokers.
Obviously, “no Mello-Roos” is a major selling point for both new and existing homes, and the reason is simple: Mello-Roos can add significantly to a homeowner’s property tax bill for a lengthy period of time.
Orange County has 88 Mello-Roos districts, but Yorba Linda has only one, according to the most recent statistics available from the state treasurer, with the Yorba Linda Mello-Roos area paying extra taxes to the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.
The Yorba Linda Mello-Roos district--officially called a Community Facilities District--consists of 293 Pulte homes located on both north and south sides of Bastanchury Road, west of Fairmont Boulevard.
This year’s special taxes, adopted 5-0 by trustees at a July 12 meeting, means an extra $562,021 for the school district, an amount collected yearly since 2003 and which will continue to be assessed through 2032.
Individual homeowners pay from $1,603 to $2,613 per year in Mello-Roos taxes based on the square footage of their homes, in addition to the regular property taxes levied on each home’s assessed value.
The money pays for a $5.5 million bond sold to help finance school facilities serving the Pulte homes. The original 22-page agreement signed with Pulte provided for a minimum $4,244,317 for schools, with homeowners paying $3.50 per square foot on the 1,244,317 square feet in the development.
The pact was termed “an appropriate means for financing and satisfying the impact of students generated from the project upon the school district’s school facilities….”
The state began allowing Mello-Roos districts to finance public improvements with five or more years of useful life in 1982 to help replace tax losses due to passage of Prop. 13 in 1978, with a maximum tax rate not to exceed two percent of a home’s sale price.
The tax cannot be based on property value, so most Mello-Roos use a square-footage basis, and a district needs a two-thirds vote of property owners to be established. Of course, most districts are set up when the property is owned by the original developer.
A FINAL NOTE -- Last week’s column (posted at ocregister.com/yorbalinda) noted City Council’s action to keep the Redevelopment Agency alive by paying $4.9 million into accounts managed by the county auditor-controller to benefit local school and special districts.
The column mentioned that $9.5 million of the agency’s $21.4 million per year revenue is “passed through” to other taxing agencies that normally would have collected some of the increased property taxes if the Redevelopment Agency didn’t exist.
Now, the city has an Enforceable Obligation Payment Schedule listing $451 million in pass-through and tax-sharing payments due during the agency’s lifetime, including the following:
Placentia-Yorba Linda school district $297 million, Fire Authority $53.8 million, Orange County $38.4 million, other county agencies $20 million, Orange school district $21.2 million, Yorba Linda library $15.8 million, North Orange County college district $3.6 million, Yorba Linda Street Lighting $764,000, Yorba Linda Water District $370,000.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 PM
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