Authorize the County Counsel to sign a second amendment to a tolling agreement with various cellular service providers to toll the limitation period for partial property tax refund claims for tax year 2017-18. (No general fund impact) (Pogledich)

Authorize the County Counsel to sign a second amendment to a tolling agreement with various cellular service providers to toll the limitation period for partial property tax refund claims for tax year 2017-18.

The various claimants listed in the second amendment (attached) to an existing tolling agreement all assert that the California constitution prohibits the imposition of a higher property tax rate on state-assessed property than locally-assessed property. The County has long disagreed with this assertion; many other counties have taken the same position.

After the County rejected claimants' requests for partial property tax refunds for tax years 2014-15 and 2015-16, the claimants proposed a tolling agreement. The County executed the tolling agreement with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Level 3 in November 2020. The tolling agreement preserved the claimants' ability to assert claims for partial property tax refunds for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 tax years pending the outcome of a Riverside County lawsuit presenting the same assessment rate issues. The County agreed to amend the tolling agreement to include the 2016-17 tax year on October 26, 2021. The claimants, now joined by Sprint, would like to further amend the agreement to add the 2017-18 tax year.

The Office of the County Counsel recommends approval of the second amended agreement. Resolution of the Riverside action is expected to provide guidance regarding the appropriate resolution of essentially identical refund claims submitted by the claimants in Yolo County. Trial in the Riverside action is set for October, though the case was recently stayed pending a decision by the 6th District Court of Appeal in a case that presents similar legal issues in Santa Clara County. The outcome of the appeal could also provide significant guidance that may enable a settlement, dismissal, or other resolution of the pending Yolo County tax refund claims.