See the video of the 2023 League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, Fall Meeting

Phong La, Hank Levy, and Jenny Wong

The Fall Meeting took place 6:30 – 8 PM on October 26th over Zoom. Our featured guests included Alameda County Assessor Phong La, Alameda County Treasurer Hank Levy, and Berkeley City Auditor Jenny Wong. All discussed their work to identify and/or address challenges that must be proactively managed to keep our needed public and community services as healthy and responsive as possible.

Wong discussed staffing shortages impacting the City of Berkeley and the services it provides. Among Levy’s topics were: how to understand where our tax dollars are going in the county; his efforts to promote sustainable and impact investment strategies for county finances and the potential for a public bank; his efforts to help public jurisdictions and nonprofits acquire tax-defaulted properties for a public benefit, such as low-income housing, services to low-income people, or public space. La described his responsibilities that include identifying and valuing all property within the county including land, buildings, businesses, personal property (including business equipment, boats, airplanes, helicopters, etc.) totaling over $420 billion of assessed value.  The property tax revenue generated funds schools, roads, parks, public safety, etc. in Alameda County.

When an entity disagrees with the assessed value and appeals the value, Assessor La  determines whether the value should change or continue with the appeal hearing.  The largest appeal currently and the largest assessed entity is Tesla at nearly $4 billion per year.

Learn more in the video: https://youtu.be/ksBfuMH_BWc