215 Gilroy Families Overcharged Property Taxes, Assessor To Pay Back $2 Million

GILROY (KPIX 5) – A snafu involving property taxes in Santa Clara County has grown. One week after 32 low-income residents found out they were overcharged, the number has grown to more than 200 families.

For families in the Los Arroyos community, it seems like a bad dream…

"First I thought, no that can't be possible because, I mean, they couldn't play with something like this," said Olga Basurto.

Over the past 13 years, the low-income housing community has never paid the correct amount of property taxes.

"We were like, wow, this is incredible. Thirteen years, and we've been paying taxes higher and higher. It was a shock," said Kassondra Torres.

The Santa Clara County Assessor's Office discovered the mistake after repeated calls from a neighbor who felt she was overpaying. It turned out the Assessor's Office had overvalued the homes since the day they were built, because the developer and the City of Gilroy never notified them that they were low-income housing.

A deeper search found 215 low-income homes in Gilroy that were in the same boat.

They will all now receive refunds from the county.

"It's complicated. But we're well aware of what it is and we're good at doing that," said Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone.

Stone estimates the county will have to fork over more than $2 million in refunds, likely coming from the county's general fund.

"We have a $4 billion budget, so $2 million is not insignificant, but it will not cause any reduction in services that the county provides to the public," Stone said.

While it's a small piece of the pie for the county, it's a significant chunk of change for families who have overpaid for years.

"Its gonna bring down our budget, bring down our taxes, we can do things more with our families," Torres said.