Kumar: Rebuttal to Larry Stone’s ‘The assessor is not a political position’

For decades, residents of Santa Clara County have endured inconsistent assessments, a broken appeals process and unprocessed refunds — all from an Assessor’s Office that has refused to modernize, standing in stark contrast to Silicon Valley’s cutting-edge innovation while maintaining a laser focus on extracting higher tax revenues from the very people who elected the assessor. Santa Clara County today needs an assessor who can modernize, not merely inherit, a dysfunctional system.

Larry Stone portrays the assessor’s office as a purely technical, apolitical institution best run by insiders. But after 30 years in office, he overlooks a central truth: The failures taxpayers experience today are not technical failures — they are failures of leadership.

Proposition 8, passed by California voters in 1978, mandates temporary reductions in assessed value during housing downturns. The assessor’s own 2019-20 report shows that only nine Proposition 8 reductions were issued, despite the appeals board acknowledging declines of up to 14% in some areas. This is political and a massive betrayal of taxpayers. Fairness shouldn’t rely on a homeowner’s ability to file appeals or navigate an opaque system.

Stone asserts the assessor’s role “is not political.” Yet throughout his tenure, he took highly political positions, repeatedly attacking measures like Proposition 13 that protected taxpayers. It is political when the assessor’s office delays appeals, political when technology modernization is ignored for decades, and political when the assessor publicly advocates for changes in California tax law.

The claim that the assessor’s office is above politics is a blatant distortion of reality. Every elected office is inherently political. That includes the county assessor. Just like sheriffs, clerks, treasurers and district attorneys, the assessor sets priorities, modernizes systems, shapes office culture, protects taxpayer rights and advocates for change when systems harm the public. Elections exist so taxpayers can choose who will fight for fairness, transparency and modernization. If the job were truly a neutral bureaucratic function, it would be appointed. But California requires voters to elect their assessor because leadership matters.

Leadership determines whether the organization evolves or stagnates. History shows that progress never comes from caretakers of outdated systems. When James Webb became NASA administrator, he modernized programs, invested in engineering excellence and laid the groundwork that put humans on the moon. Leadership is about improvement.

Stone’s claim that innovation or reform is “reckless” is precisely why the assessor’s office stagnated and fell behind time. For decades it relied on 75-year-old COBOL technology prone to errors and annual outages. A board-commissioned report in 2004 said the office’s core system could be replaced within seven to ten years with competent oversight.

Nearly 20 years later, modernization still has not happened. When Stone retired, he cited the county’s newly approved contract to finally replace the antiquated system. After three decades of his leadership, this admission illustrates the depth of the problem: The office has accumulated $120 billion in unresolved appeals — a staggering backlog with real consequences for taxpayers and schools.

Stone argues most assessors come from inside government. But history shows entrenched bureaucracies rarely reform themselves. What the office now needs is executive management skill, technological modernization, operational transparency, fiscal responsibility and a commitment to fairness and consistency.

What is truly reckless is allowing the outdated, archaic system to continue unchanged. Santa Clara County needs modernization, fairness and leadership that prioritizes the people — not the status quo. Preserving broken systems is not leadership, it is complacency.

This moment calls for reform, innovation and a renewed commitment to taxpayers. That is why I am running.

Rishi Kumar is a candidate for Santa Clara County assessor and former Saratoga councilmember.