Property Tax Deadline Arrives Today for 221,255 Across County

Between frantic bouts of holiday shopping and writing Christmas cards, Ventura County property owners have one more thing to remember: Today is the deadline to pay their first property tax installment.

The good news is that as of Friday, 81,486 of the county’s 221,255 property owners had paid all or part of their taxes for the year.

The bad news is that about 1,200 laggards who don’t like to part with a penny of their money a minute sooner than necessary are expected to queue up today at the county treasurer’s office.

On Wednesday, in a largely unsuccessful bid to miss the deadline crunch, many taxpayers succumbed to the inevitable a day early. Standing in a line as long and impenetrable as a government form, they wore looks of resignation usually associated with death--or taxes.

“I would rather be shopping,” said an Oxnard resident who gave her name only as Rosa. “I don’t like to wait. I’m very impatient.”

Still, the impatient could find the traditional lineup shorter than in past years.

As of Friday, the county had collected about $14 million more than at the same time last year, said John McKinney, assistant treasurer and tax collector.

Also, delinquencies are projected to fall again this year, down from an already minuscule 2.1%.

“Taxes are, in fact, a barometer of financial health,” said Treasurer Hal Pittman, who, along with his assistant, today will wear his traditional tax deadline tie--a navy blue cravat adorned with little white money bags.

“Indications are the economy is good here,” Pittman said. “When things are on the upswing, the delinquency rate goes down.”

This year the average taxpayer will pony up $1,218, $29 more than last year.

But it could be much worse.

Top county taxpayer Amgen, the Thousand Oaks-based biotechnology giant, will pay about $8.3 million in taxes this year on property worth about $818.5 million.

It’s the first time the 18-year-old company has displaced Southern California Edison as the county’s biggest taxpayer. That may be somewhat of a dubious achievement, but it does show the company is continuing to grow at its 120-acre campus, company spokesman David Kaye said.

“This year we did bring on line at least two new buildings--the new administration building and a new research building with several hundred employees in each,” Kaye said. “With our number of buildings increasing, we anticipate our property tax bill will increase as well.”

The top 10 taxpayers pay about $38.6 million of the $538 million the county expects to take in.

Not all that money, however, stays in county coffers.

The county’s cut is only 18%, with school districts receiving 56% of the money, special districts getting 19% and cities taking in 7%, Auditor Tom Mahon said.

Most property taxpayers mail or wire their payments or have them automatically deducted along with their monthly mortgage payments, leaving it up to their lender to send in the appropriate amount.

Those who don’t trust the mail can use a drop box in the lobby of the administration building. As a last resort, people can place their payment in a drop box on the Telephone Road side of the county Government Center. The box will not be emptied until midnight.

But there are those who are prepared to stand and wait.

Some have questions. Others, such as Mary Ferramola of Ventura, want tangible proof they won’t be hit with a dreaded 10% penalty for paying late.

“I want to prove I was in here paying my bill,” she said. “There’s nothing better than having a receipt.”

And a surprising number of people pay in cash, said Pittman, who understands the fascination with paper money. He collects currency as a hobby--he has several rare framed bills on his office wall--and is slowly adding to his collection of currency issued by five local banks before the 1930s.

Still, Pittman gets a little uncomfortable with some of his customers.

Fortunately, there are few taxpayers like the landlord who used to walk in every year to pay his annual $55,000 tax bill with $100 bills and $50 bills stapled together in $1,000 bundles, all carried in a thick envelope clearly labeled “currency.”

“That was a shock,” Pittman said, wondering just where the man kept such a ready cash cache.

Still, such acts partly explain why two sheriff’s deputies are on duty these days at the treasurer’s office. The officers also come in handy when dealing with taxpayers bent on venting their feelings. “Mostly, it’s Valium for the line,” McKinney said of the deputies’ presence. “We have people who rehearse speeches for Mr. Pittman.”

And then there are those all too few patriots who view paying taxes as a symbol of being an American.

“I love it,” said Henry Davis, 61, of Oxnard, who has dutifully come in the last 32 years to stand in line and pay his debt to society. “If it wasn’t for taxes, this wouldn’t be a free country.”

Davis was definitely in the minority among his fellow taxpayers Wednesday.

Longshoreman Librado Vasquez of Oxnard stood in line because he had procrastinated about paying his bill. And retired county firefighter John Van Manen, 63, lives only three blocks away, so he made paying his property tax bill part of his daily exercise routine.

But Van Manen found a positive side to the experience.

“I’m glad everybody is down here paying their taxes,” he said, laughing, “so I can still get my retirement [pension].”

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Ventura County’s Top 10 taxpayers Fiscal year 1998-1999

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Company Tax amount Property value (in millions) (in millions) 1. Amgen Inc. $8.3 $818.5 2. So. Cal. Edison $7.7 $697.2 3. GTE California Inc. $7.6 $689 4. Pacific Bell $3.8 $346.7 5. Procter & Gamble $3.1 $269.5 6. So. Cal. Gas Co. $2.6 $239.3 7. Aera Energy $2.5 $238 8. The Oaks mall $1.3 $124.8 9. Tiger Ventura $0.8 $73.1 10. Chelsea GCA $0.7 $50.2

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Source: County of Ventura