The total for the 2015-16 tax roll, $5.2 trillion, is a 5.9 percent increase from the previous year’s $4.9 trillion and should generate about $57.3 billion in property taxes for schools and local governments, roughly $3 billion more than the current year’s levies. The state government also benefits because increases in school property taxes reduce the legal requirement for state aid.
All but two of the state’s 58 counties recorded gains with Kern County’s 8.6 percent decline the most noteworthy, due largely to reductions in value of the county’s underground oil deposits, which mirror a steep drop in global oil prices.
