Poway Unified looking into Mello Roos tax errors

By Emily Sorensen

The Poway Unified School District superintendent on Friday said the district working to help resolve inaccurate tax rates in some of the district’s Mello-Roos areas.

A KPBS/inewsource investigation has uncovered a number of inconsistencies in the tax bills of homeowners in the Del Sur area, which includes some of the school district’s Community Facilities Districts (CFDs).

The error is in the special Mello-Roos tax, paid by homeowners living in the school district’s CFDs. These special taxes go toward offsetting the costs of roads, schools and other infrastructure.

Mello-Roos taxes are often based on the square footage of the house, but in one CFD in the Poway Unified School District, CFD #14 in Del Sur, the tax rate is based on a number of variables, including square footage of the house, the year the house was built, and a building index that changes yearly, according to inewsource.

Several homeowners living in PUSD CFDs have reported discovering that they are overpaying on the Mello-Roos taxes, some by hundreds of dollars, due to inaccuracies in the information used to calculate their tax rate.

PUSD Supt. John Collins said in a Friday email, “After a recent media report on errors in a City of San Diego CFD tax assessment, an individual homeowner within a PUSD CFD contacted us regarding concerns that he was paying more taxes than many of his neighbors. Working with the District Special Tax consultant, the City of San Diego Development Services, and by obtaining the Notice of Special Tax Disclosure from the merchant builder, the District was able to confirm that the square footage of the house was inaccurately recorded on the City of San Diego Approval document for issuance of a building permit. The square footage listed on his building permit was not accurate. The District calculates its special tax assessment based on the records provided by the City. If those records are incorrect then PUSD’s special tax assessments will be incorrect. We are in the process of resolving this matter.”

San Diego City Councilman Mark Kersey sent a letter to the PUSD board on Tuesday, July 23, requesting that the board audit the school district’s CFDs. “I request a full review of the process by which homeowners’ required payments are calculated, the accuracy of the data used in those calculations, and safeguards (or lack thereof) to prevent and identify errors,” wrote Kersey in his letter.

In his letter, Kersey named two PUSD CFD homeowners, Michael Tagulao, from CFD 14 in Del Sur, and Yosina Lissebeck, from Torrey Highlands, who have come forward stating that they have been overbilled on their taxes due to an error in the district’s records of the square footage of their houses.

Kersey also wrote that he has also requested an audit of the City of San Diego’s CFDs.

Collins stated in an email that the district was already working to resolve the issue raised by Kersey.

“We are reviewing the databases that the District uses to calculate Mello-Roos taxes to ensure that our records match those of the city. It’s important to understand that the Mello-Roos tax errors that have been identified so far are a result of inaccurate building permit records in the City of San Diego Development Services Department database,” said Collins in an email.

“In order for the District’s audit to be of use, a separate, comprehensive audit has to be conducted by the City of San Diego’s Building and Safety Division. Homeowners within the PUSD CFDs first need to know that the records for their property on file in the City of San Diego are correct. We encourage the City to take the needed steps to ensure their records are accurate and notify PUSD if additional errors are found.”

Collins said that at the moment, the only CFD with issues the district is aware of is CFD #14, and that the district will know more after the City of San Diego has reviewed its records and the district and city audits are complete.

Collins also said the district plans to enhance its website to assist homeowners to verify that the information the district has received from the City of San Diego about their homes is accurate.