California Board of Equalization
Duties and Responsibilities

The Board of Equalization was created by the State Constitution of 1879. The board consists of five voting members: four members elected for four-year terms at gubernatorial elections and the State Controller, who serves ex officio. The state is divided into four Board of Equalization districts with the voters of each district electing one member to no more than two terms. A member of the board must be an inhabitant of the district for which he is chosen for the one year preceding his election or appointment.

The board has a wide variety of duties established by the Constitution and by statute. The California Constitution directs to board to ensure equity and uniformity relative to the assessment of all properties assessed by the 58 county assessors, annually assess pipelines, flumes, canals, ditches, and aqueducts lying within two or more counties and property, except franchises, owned or used by regulated railway, telegraph, or telephone companies, car companies operating on railways in the state, and companies transmitting or selling gas or electricity; assess taxes on insurance companies; and assess and collect the excise taxes on the manufacture, importation and sale of alcoholic beverages.

The board performs quasi-judicial, quasi-legislative, and administrative functions.

[Taken from: California's Legislature (1994). Republished with permission.]