Santa Barbara County Grand Jury
• 2025-2026
What are Those Extra Charges on My Property Tax Bill?
⚠️ 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 3 findings
F1
Special Districts, for which the Board of Supervisors acts as the Board for the dependent special district, can provide additional services to residents appropriately at a local level, but not all are transparent about how funds are used. Notably, taxpayers in County Service Areas are not well informed about decision making.
F2
The majority of the new housing projected for the South County to meet the State’s affordable housing requirements will be built in what is now CSA 3, exacerbating the issues of transparency in the use of CSA 3 funds.
F3
More than 2.000 of the new housing units projected in the County to meet the State’s affordable housing requirements will be built outside what is now CSA 3. Those residents will require services and LAFCO-created agencies must be created to provide them.
Recommendations 4
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R1aThe Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors create a page on the County’s website that clearly identifies all of the dependent special districts with links to projects funded by the special taxes, revenues, expenditures, and fund balances.
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R1bThe Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors directly notifies taxpayers in Dependent Special Districts when an item is on a Board agenda that affects either the amount of taxpayer’s Benefit Assessment or expenditures of District funds.
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R2The Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors, in consultation with LAFCO, review the optimal structures for service provision in the developing areas of CSA 3.
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R3The Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors, in consultation with LAFCO, ensure that any agencies created to provide services to new developments in the unincorporated area of the County provide a clear explanation of what services will be provided and at what cost for the new residents.