Election of Assessors: No on 66

Proposition 66, mandating that all California counties elect their tax assessors, is unnecessary and should be defeated in Tuesday’s primary election.

All 58 of California’s counties now have assessors who are elected, but the state Constitution permits a county to switch to an appointed assessor if the county’s voters decide to do so. Considering the evolution of the assessor’s job over the past 20 years, this is an option that the counties should retain.

Since the assessor scandals of the 1960s and the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the assessor’s job has become virtually automatic. No longer does the assessor have broad latitude in setting the taxable value of property--a latitude that was an invitation to corruption. Computers now do most of the work. Today a good assessor is a good manager, personnel director and data-processing expert.

Supporters of Proposition 66 contend that the assessor should be directly responsible to the voters and independent of political pressure from a county board of supervisors. But it could be argued, too, that a good board of supervisors could get rid of a bad assessor much faster than the voters could. Californians should let the system stay the way it is by voting No on Proposition 66.