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Extracted from Consolidated Report
This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.
Score: +13
(13/0/0)
Sonoma County Grand Jury
• 2023-2024
Sonoma County Taxes & Spending How much do Sonoma County residents pay in taxes, how is that money spent, and how hard
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings 8 findings
F1
The total amount and source of tax collections is not published in a useful, publicly accessible format by any government entity.
F2
The actual amount of money being spent to address public need is not published in a useful, publicly accessible format by any government entity
F3
The Sonoma County Office of Education publishes no report summarizing how much, in total, is being collected, spent, or borrowed to pay for public education in Sonoma County.
F4
The County Auditor/Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector Citizen’s Report, a helpful document, doesn’t answer major questions about tax revenue or spending.
F5
The County Auditor doesn’t have the resources needed to conduct performance audits throughout County government.
F6
The County Assessor doesn’t have the resources needed to eliminate a significant assessment backlog. As a consequence, many taxpayers will get hit with significant back- dated property tax bills when this assessment backlog is cleared.
F7
Sonoma County sales tax rates are among the highest in California.
F8
Citizen Oversight Committees are frequently inoperative, largely ineffective and have no authority.
Recommendations 6
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R1By December 27, 2024, the Board of Supervisors shall direct and fund the Controller to modify County financial systems such that spending classification data capture enables cross-agency categoric reporting for fiscal 2026 onward.
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R2By February 28, 2025, the Board of Supervisors, ACTTC and County Office of Education shall jointly determine personnel and professional services needed to make the Citizens Report a comprehensive presentation of all Sonoma County property and sales tax collections and expenditures.
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R3By June 30, 2025, the Board of Supervisors shall fund the ACTTC so the Citizens Report includes this categorized information for fiscal years 2026 and onward.
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R4By June 30, 2025 the Board of Supervisors shall fund and authorize staffing sufficient for the Auditor to conduct appropriate performance audits each fiscal year from 2026 onward.
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R5By December 28, 2024 the Board of Supervisors shall fund and authorize temporary staffing to enable the Assessor’s Office to eliminate the assessment backlog
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R22-23STATE EXPENDITURES 2022-2023 PROP 13 & STATE REVENUE Forestville Union 237 224 $3,814,093 $5,251,449 $9,065,542 Fort Ross Elementary 21 14 $423,530 $961,527 $1,385,057 Geyserville Unified 232 211 $3,125,733 $5,251,332 $8,377,065 Gravenstein Union 761 768 $3,686,973 $11,510,815 $15,197,788 Guerneville 1,341 360 $2,626,603 $10,420,765 $13,047,368 Harmony Union 652 504 $2,987,550 $15,938,556 $18,926,107 Healdsburg Unified 1,440 1,240 $24,884,483 $30,203,226 $55,087,709 Horicon 69 56 $1,873,061 $2,447,780 $4,320,841 Kashia 15 8 $129,627 $401,972 $531,599 Kenwood 138 113 $2,540,954 $3,361,260 $5,902,214 Liberty 834 1,559 $7,978,260 $24,662,866 $32,641,125 Mark West Union 1,444 1,305 $9,056,420 $21,878,547 $30,934,967 Monte Rio Union 84 59 $1,474,447 $1,629,524 $3,103,971 Montgomery Elementary 33 21 $599,609 $998,545 $1,598,153 Oak Grove Union 1,241 1,217 $3,338,860 $20,163,280 $23,502,140 Old Adobe Union 2,091 1,973 $13,407,489 $32,468,359 $45,875,848 Petaluma City Elementary 2,463 2,410 $16,926,204 $38,093,713 $55,019,917 Petaluma Joint Union High 5,358 4,926 $33,498,261 $0 $33,498,261 Piner-Olivet Union 1,261 1,235 $6,936,519 $21,568,670 $28,505,189 Rincon Valley Union 3,307 3,072 $22,343,216 $45,985,597 $68,328,814 Roseland 2,912 2,766 $9,970,349 $82,510,554 $92,480,903 Santa Rosa City Elementary 4,992 4,861 $33,094,511 $86,229,862 $119,324,373 Santa Rosa City High 11,104 10,179 $83,495,319 $0 $83,495,319 Sebastopol Union 900 764 $6,765,546 $14,781,467 $21,547,013 Sonoma Co Office of Ed 547 317 $24,639,127 $0 $24,639,127 Sonoma Valley Unified 4,329 3,626 $54,502,755 $84,091,436 $138,594,192 Twin Hills Union 1,207 959 $4,536,992 $17,087,596 $21,624,589 Two Rock Union 166 133 $471,660 $2,176,752 $2,648,412 Waugh 854 775 $2,905,495 $9,754,259 $12,659,753 West Side Union 178 137 $1,539,551 $2,193,475 $3,733,027 West Sonoma County Union 1,933 1,588 $14,566,675 $28,635,515 $43,202,189 Wilmar Union 243 219 $1,805,125 $3,015,378 $4,820,503 Windsor Unified 5,165 4,727 $29,372,124 $71,312,846 $100,684,969 Wright 1,480 1,279 $6,404,265 $23,976,901 $30,381,167 Total 69,734 64,375 $502,103,660 $888,329,216 $1,390,432,876 Note: the state report on ADA $ aggregates high school and elementary districts while population data is split and the State report doesn't include the SCOE schools
Conclusions 2
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CL1 Page 18The Grand Jury set out to investigate a simple citizen complaint about a school district’s failure to follow oversight rules and ended up looking at the entire universe of taxation and spending in Sonoma County. It’s a topic made for analysts: county residents pay almost four billion dollars in taxes and the Sonoma County government spends more than $2.2 billion to provide public services, so there is a lot of data. It isn’t particularly hard to figure out how much is paid in taxes, but it’s almost impossible to figure out where the money goes in terms that most people will understand: it’s buried in thousands of pages of County, city, special district, and school documents. There is little effort to aggregate the information across government boundaries and none of these agencies have any legal requirement to aggregate information. But if agencies could agree on common ways to classify and share their operational data, all their jobs would be easier—and a significant public benefit would be an important byproduct. We also learned that the Assessor’s office has a backlog that is impacting current property tax collections and that is putting taxpayers in jeopardy. As assessors catch up, three or four years of delayed revaluation can add thousands and thousands of dollars to an unsuspecting taxpayer’s bill. This is a solvable problem: the Board of Supervisors can give the Assessor’s office the authority and budget to temporarily engage the necessary resources. Finally, the Grand Jury learned that the two major public oversight mechanisms—citizens’ committees and the County’s internal audit program—are doing what they’re legally required to do,
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CL2 Page 19but not enough to provide actual, robust oversight. Citizen’s Oversight Committees are largely restricted to reviewing post-fact accounting and have a hard time getting public participation and the County audit team doesn’t have the staff or budget to expose County operational weakness before they become headlines in the Press Democrat. At least one of these problems can be solved. An informed electorate is government’s most valuable asset. The Grand Jury commends the Auditor- Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector staff for the Citizens’ Report; it’s an excellent start. The Controller can help by updating EFS, the general accounting system, to facilitate functional tracking as spending occurs. Most importantly, the Board of Supervisors can lead the way by mandating improved data definition, cross-agency reporting and aggregation, and facilitating reporting integration with independent authorities like schools and special districts.
Agency Responses 2
Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.
No Responses Found 1
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
Sonoma County Assessor
Elected County Office