Where Do California Property Taxes Go?

Statewide in 2024-25, about 54¢ of every property-tax dollar went to K-12 schools and community colleges, 14¢ to county government, 12¢ to cities and 20¢ to special districts (fire, water, parks, transit, and the successor agencies of former redevelopment agencies). The split is fixed by state law for the 1% base and follows the bond for each voter-approved debt rate, so it varies by county — from 28¢ to schools in Alpine County to 74¢ in Madera County.

Schools first: the largest share of the 1% levy funds K-12 districts and community colleges, and the state reduces its own school funding by the same amount under Proposition 98, so property tax is in effect the local half of school finance. The county share pays for sheriff and jails, courts facilities, public health, social services and roads; the city share for police, fire, parks and streets in incorporated areas; and the special-district share for fire districts, water and sanitation agencies, libraries, cemeteries, mosquito abatement and the bonds those agencies and schools have passed.

The 1% base is divided by formulas frozen in 1979 (AB 8) on each agency's pre-Proposition 13 share, then adjusted by the ERAF shifts of the 1990s. A county with no incorporated cities (Alpine, Mariposa, Trinity) sends 0¢ to cities, a county that provides fire and library service itself keeps more, and a county whose cities ran their own services before 1978 sends more to cities — San Francisco County sends 57¢, the most in the state.

No. Neither can raise the 1% rate or change its own share; the allocation follows state statute. What local voters control is the debt on top — school, college, hospital and park bonds — and parcel taxes and Mello-Roos special taxes, which go entirely to the agency that put them on the ballot.

Statewide, schools took 54.1¢ of the dollar in 2012-13 and 53.5¢ in 2024-25; cities 10.3¢ → 12.2¢; counties 16.8¢ → 14.1¢; special districts and other agencies 18.8¢ → 20.2¢. The total levy grew from $49.9 billion to $100.0 billion. The dissolution of redevelopment agencies in 2012 and the pass-through of their former increment explains much of the movement in the "other" share.