HMB to get $380,858 in tax settlement from county

San Mateo County has agreed to pay Half Moon Bay $380,858 to compensate it for property tax revenue that it neglected to pay to the city between 1991 and 2005. This settlement is about 60% of the missing taxes, according to the County Times.

According to a San Mateo County Grand Jury report released in June, "the Controller failed to allocate approximately $8.1 million of TEA funds to four cities for the 15-year period between 1991 and 2005."

The report also assigned blame to the California State Controller’s Office — which missed the omission despite regular audits — and to the county bureaucracy for poor communication about the changes. The cities failed to notice it in a timely manner as well, the report said.
tax."

However, trying to get more could have meant costly litigation, something everyone wanted to try to avoid, Howard said.