It’s time for a three-part quiz about the government of California.

Question 1: What does the California Board of Equalization do?

If you are stunned, do not despair. This obscure state tax office, run by four regionally elected board members and the state inspector, has considerably fewer tasks than a few years ago. In 2017, following allegations of mismanagement and corruption, the California legislature stripped approximately 90% of the

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duties and personnel and transferred them to two newly formed states

desk,

the Tax and Customs Administration and the Tax and Customs Administration.

The planks

the main responsibility at this time is to ensure that the county appraisers collect property taxes correctly.

Question 2: What does the elected state superintendent of public education do?

This answer may seem simpler, but it’s tricky. An obvious guess would be that this impartial elected official sets policy for the California Department of Education and approves curriculum frameworks and academic standards for the state’s public school.

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. But no; that is the job of the appointed State Board of Education. The duty of the state inspector

is the supervision of the department and its employees,

the type of job usually filled by an appointee with expertise in management.

Question 3: Does California really need these five elected officials?

Probably not. But that’s a question we hope voters will get an answer to next year.

Two bills would put constitutional amendments on the 2024 ballot to abolish the positions. One, ACA-11, by Board member Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), would eliminate the Board of Equalization and transfer the remainder of its duties and personnel to the state’s other tax agencies; the other, ACA-9, by Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), would eliminate the elected superintendent position once the term of the current office holder expires and replace it with one appointed by the governor.

These are sensitive

proposal

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The legislature should support the bills, which would let voters decide. We’ve been saying in the editorials for years that these features aren’t necessary

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It’s a waste of money to maintain

them. elected officials and support staff when the real work is done by others.

It seems the only reason these five

elected seats

have hung around for so long (the Board of Equalization was established in 1879) is that they often serve as career-extending positions for appointed

–

legislators. The current state superintendent of public education, Tony Thurmond, is a former member of the California Legislature, as were the three superintendents before him. Two of the four current elected members of the Board of Equalization are also former state legislators. The other two are former councillors. None of them are experts in fiscal policy. (The fifth board member, the State Controller, is an ex officio member.)

Placing these questions on the ballot creates a healthy debate about the

roles and responsibilities of elected officials

, as well as the function and structure of government. Having more elected positions does not automatically translate into better oversight.

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ne of the main reasons that the

B

order

of equalization

was stripped in 2017 due to evidence that its elected officials misused personnel and funds to further their own political interests. For example, one of the board members deployed 113 employees for parking and registration tasks at a conference that was not about tax policy.

One concern that has already been raised is that the Board of Equalization staff, even in its diminished state, does important work and provides valuable tax assistance to voters and county assessors.

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The work can continue whether or not it is overseen by four elected board members. In fact, no other state has an elected tax commission. in addition,

ACA-11

would

only

to eliminate

only

13 BOE positions

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The majority of the nearly 200 employees are civil servants who would like to

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doing the same job as part of another government agency.

For those concerned that cutting these five elected jobs will diminish voters’ power to run state and local government departments, consider the following: There are seven other constitutional officials statewide, including the governor, as well as 120 full-time state legislators and many thousands of elected officials representing California’s 58 counties, 482 cities, and more than 1,000 school boards. And that doesn’t even include the states of many elected water boards and special districts. Californians have no shortage of opportunities to elect government representatives.

But in the end, the voters have to decide. Once they know enough about these five chosen positions to confidently answer the essay portion of a California citizen quiz, we think the choice will be clear.