Filing Taxes Hits Home for Owners

Never mind that Ventura County homeowners had an extra two days this year to ante up their property tax payments. On Monday, they still lined up 30 deep to beat the deadline.

Oh, they had good reason for tardiness. Just listen to the lunch crowd lined up outside the tax collector’s office at the County Government Center in Ventura:

“They reappraised my house, so I had to pay a lot more this year. Two thousand dollars more,” said Oxnard resident Chris Misiufra, who brought her 12-year-old daughter, Stefanie, along for a lesson in the painful side of homeownership. “You don’t want to give that up before you have to.”

For 7-months-pregnant Shana Daniels, it was the lost-notice lament. She and her husband refinanced their Moorpark home and forgot that their lower mortgage payment came with the added responsibility of handling their own property tax payment.

It wasn’t until she saw an item in the newspaper over the weekend, Daniels said, that the couple realized they had not received their bill.

“I can think of a lot of other things I’d rather be doing than standing in this line,” said the 35-year-old personal trainer. “Like working out, or maybe sleeping in. But I had the day off, so it was the natural choice.”

Those stragglers were just a fraction of the 221,255 property owners in the county who received bills and were expected to pay by 5 p.m. Monday or face a 10% penalty for being late.

The county’s property tax roll totals $538 million this fiscal year, up about 3% over last year, said Treasurer-Tax Collector Harold S. Pittman. Taxes have risen as home prices continue their rebound from an average 18% loss in value seen during the early 1990s, Pittman said.

Not all property taxes stay in the county’s treasury. The county’s cut is only 18%, with California’s school districts receiving 56% of the money, special districts getting 19% and cities taking in 7%. Cities and counties use the money to pay for everything from pothole repairs to health-care services for the poor.

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Property taxes are paid in two annual installments, the first due in December. Although the second payment usually comes due April 10, that fell on a Saturday this year, kicking the due date to Monday.

People began queuing up before the tax collection office opened at 8 a.m., Pittman said. As usual, the size of the line varied considerably throughout the day. During the lunch rush, more than 30 people were in line.

“It seems to us that someone pulls up with a bus and unloads all these people,” Pittman said.

With five clerks collecting payments and issuing receipts, the average wait was about 20 minutes. Jim Luttjohann of Santa Paula was near the end of the line, waiting to pay $2,000 for three properties.

Luttjohann brought his Visa card, hoping to pay with it so he could rack up some frequent-flier miles. A collection clerk told him, however, that because the transaction is considered a cash advance it would not allow him to get the free miles.

The 37-year-old owner of The Daily Grind coffee shop in Ventura said he does not mind paying property taxes.

“I object less to them, because I see a direct return to the community in schools, police and fire services,” Luttjohann said. “But incomes taxes are another story. And, yes, I do plan to pay those on the last day, too.”

With the bite of federal income taxes--due Thursday--coming so close behind the property tax deadline, Monday’s taxpayers were in surprisingly good humor. Ed Taylor, 43, a magazine writer from Ventura, joked about waiting in line to deliver his girlfriend’s tax payment.

“I’ve got to get the notice first, go out and get a cashier’s check, and then come back and pay, all on my lunch hour,” Taylor said. ‘No good deed goes unpunished.”

Even Pittman seemed to get into the spirit.

He wore his traditional tax deadline tie--a navy blue cravat embroidered with little white money bags. He found the accessory in a catalog five years ago and takes it out of the closet only twice a year, Pittman said.

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But the tax man drew the line on displaying joviality when posing for a photograph.

“People don’t like smiling tax collectors,” he said. “They wonder what you’re up to.”

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Top Taxpayers

The top 10 Ventura County property taxpayers for the 1998-99 fiscal year:

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Tax amount Value 1. Amgen $8,333,729 $818,504,887 2. Southern California Edison $7,700,580 $697,186,368 3. GTE California Inc. $7,683,959 $688,996,560 4. Pacific Bell $3,823,866 $346,676,738 5. Procter & Gamble $3,076,219 $269,558,559 6. So. California Gas $2,638,901 $239,255,436 7. Aera Energy $2,518,582 $238,035,986 8. The Oaks mall $1,274,722 $124,861,797 9. Tiger Ventura $824,797 $73,124,739 10. Chelsea GCA Realty $744,702 $50,254,132 Totals $38,620,057 $3,546,455,202

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Source: Ventura County tax collector’s office