City of Alhambra v. County of Los Angeles

Opinion

CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J.

By statute, counties are responsible for the administration of local property taxes by assessing and collecting them and then disbursing the revenue to the various cities, special districts, schools, and other entities within the county. Some of the revenue, however, must be allocated to each county’s “Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund” (sometimes referred to as ERAF)—a state-created fund that reallocates portions of local property tax revenue to fulfill the state’s constitutional obligation to fund education at specified levels. In order to cover county costs…