Chiquita Canyon Landfill: property tax reassessment and penalties.

In a measure authored by Assembly Member Schiavo, the bill would authorize a downward reassessment of property values for properties located within five miles of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill to reflect declines in value tied to the elevated temperature landfill event, with retroactive effect to January 1, 2022 and notices to taxpayers detailing the assessment change and any refund rights. The bill’s findings frame this reassessment as serving a public purpose and designate the measure as a special statute for Los Angeles County, taking immediate effect as an urgency statute. The reassessment would be conducted under a new provision added to the Revenue and Taxation Code, and any resulting refunds would follow the existing refund procedures specified for adjustments of this kind.

Beyond the reassessment, the proposal extends delinquency and installment-relief protections for the five-mile radius. It extends the period before a default is considered for delinquent- tax installment plans within the radius, so that plans begun before a specified date would not be considered in default until April 10, 2030, provided that all required payments through January 7, 2025 were timely. It makes analogous changes to prior-year escape assessments, allowing those taxes to be paid over four years while suspending collection and delinquency status for the radius through 2030 if timely through the stated date. The measure also adds a new authority to cancel penalties, costs, or other charges upon a finding of hardship—not only for shelter-in-place orders but also for hardship arising from the Chiquita Canyon landfill event, with clearly defined criteria for each hardship scenario.

The bill further embeds definitional and procedural provisions related to these changes and frames the policy within targeted findings and an urgency declaration. It adds an explicit hardship-based ground tied to the landfill event and a separate shelter-in-place hardship, along with definitions for both the shelter-in-place order and the Chiquita Canyon elevated temperature landfill event. It also contemplates a state-mandated local program, with reimbursements to local agencies if costs are deemed mandated by the state, and it emphasizes immediate applicability to address the event’s local fiscal implications. Taken together, the provisions authorize retroactive reassessment, radius-specific relief from delinquency and penalties, and event-based hardship relief, all under a special statutory framework designed for Los Angeles County and enacted with urgent effect.