Annual Report 2019 - 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Message from Lawrence E. Stone........................................................3
Prop 8: Temporary Declines in Assessed Value...................20
How Tax Bills are Calculated...............................................................6
The Assessment Roll.............................................................................7
Supplemental Assessments...................................................................8
Roll Comparison of Counties...............................................................9
Assessment Information by City.........................................................10
Proposition 13.....................................................................................12
Exemptions.........................................................................................15
New Construction...............................................................................16
Changes in Ownership & Transfers....................................................18
Business Personal Property..................................................22
Top 25 Companies...............................................................23
Assessment Appeals.............................................................24
Customer Service/Performance Counts...............................26
Explanation of Terms...........................................................28
Assessed Value by City and Property Type.........................30
Assessed Value by School District and Property Type........31
Property Assessment Calendar.............................................34
The Assessor’s Team............................................................35
Organizational Overview of the Assessor’s Office.............................19
Santa Clara County Assessor’s Mission Statement
The Mission of the Santa Clara County Assessor’s Office is to produce an annual assessment roll including all
assessable property in accordance with legal mandates in a timely, accurate, and efficient manner; and provide
current assessment related information to the public and to governmental agencies in a timely and responsive way.
Responsibility of the Assessor’s Office
The Assessor has the responsibility to locate all taxable property in the County, identify ownership, establish a
value for all property subject to local property taxation, list the value of all property on the assessment roll, and
apply all legal exemptions. The Santa Clara County Assessor does not compute property tax bills, collect property
taxes, establish property tax laws, establish rules by which property is assessed, or set property tax rates. The
assessments allow the County of Santa Clara to collect and allocate property tax revenue which supports essential
public services provided by the County, local schools, cities, and special districts.
Santa Clara County contains more than 479,000 separate real property parcels. There were more than 7,436
changes in parcel numbers, and more than 80,000 change in ownership documents filed with the County Recorder’s
Office. The Assessor’s Office also maintains a comprehensive set of 216 Assessor’s parcel map books. The
office appraised more than 7,800 parcels with new construction activities, and processed more than 63,000 business
personal property assessments.