By: John D | Original Article at patch.com
Beaumont City Staff and Consultants Hold an Information Meeting With Solera Oak Valley Greens Residents to Explain CFD Taxes
Monday evening the City (along with three consultants) attempted to EXPLAIN to 400+ Solera Oak Valley residents why their CFD Mello-Roos taxes either went up or down this year. It was explained that:
1) Solera property owners are participants in two separate CFD bond issues and
2) these two CFD bond issues have different Rate & Method of Apportionment and
3) previous tax bills for 11 years were wrong and
4) current staff and consultants were not responsible for past mistakes and
5) no – Solera residents were never given the opportunity to approve this debt on themselves and
6) things should get better now
Residents posed these and other questions to the City:
A) Why did my CFD tax go up this year? Answer – because they have been wrong in the past.
B) Why is my tax higher than my neighbors? Answer – because your home is in a different TAX ZONE from your neighbor.
C) I was told when I bought my home that the Mello-Roos tax would be for 20 years? Response – you were misinformed.
D) My official Tax Disclosure Statement said my maximum CFD payment would be $1,600 per year? Response – you were misinformed by your seller. Maybe you can make a claim against Pulte Homes.
E) If my CFD payment went down, have I been overpaying for 11 years? Answer – no one has paid more than the allowed maximum.
F) Will I be getting my overpayments back from the City? Answer – see E) above
G) What did Solera property owners get for the 33 million dollars of bonds they are paying off? Answer – we are looking into that, it will take a while to figure out.