James Randolph receives award from Former Los Angeles County Assessor, Kenneth Hahn. If you are a California resident and want to SAVE MONEY Call a professional - 1-800-559-0410. Avoid increasing your property taxes. ABOUT JAMES RANDOLPH Meet James Randolph, Consumer Advocate. After working for over 28 years in the Los Angeles County Assessors Office, James established Randolph's Property Tax & Assessment Consultant - an organization dedicated to helping homeowners fight for their rights. Member of: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. There are many California state Propositions that a homeowner can take advance of...but most people do not know about them. Senior Citizen's Replacement Dwelling Benefit Disabled Persons Claim for Transfer of Base-Year Value to Replacement Dwelling Reassessment Exclusion for Real Property Transfers: Between Parent and Child Reassessment Exclusion for Real Property Transfers: From Grandparent to Grandchild Disaster Relief: Property Damaged by Misfortune or Calamity Market Value Decline Eminent Domain Standard Homeowners’ Exemption Veterans' Exemption Disabled Veterans’ Exemption Assessment of Manufactured Homes Institutional Exemptions Builders’ Exclusion Some History Proposition 13, Proposition 62 & Proposition 218 In 1978, voters approved Proposition 13, a constitutional amendment lowering property taxes and placing other restrictions on local government taxation. Proposition 13 also required two- thirds voter approval of special taxes imposed by cities, counties and special districts. General taxes were not subject to a popular vote requirement. In 1982, the California Supreme Court determined that special taxes were taxes earmarked for a specific purpose, whereas general taxes were taxes that were placed in the general fund to be used for general government purposes. In 1986, voters approved Proposition 62, a statutory initiative which required majority voter approval of local general taxes and restated the two-thirds voter approval requirement for local special taxes. However, in response to subsequent California court decisions, which labeled the general tax vote requirement unconstitutional, cities, counties and other local governments increased or imposed new general taxes in the 1990s without voter approval. These commonly took the form of utility users taxes, business license fees and hotel taxes. On November 6, 1996, Proposition 218 took effect. Proposition 218 makes clear that property-related "fees" are taxes and not fees if such "fees" are used for general public services. Thus, through Proposition 218 the voters have sent a clear message that the intentions of the voters in passing Proposition 13 cannot be so easily thwarted by calling a tax a "fee," because a tax by another name is still a tax.