SANTA ANA, Calif. – Chairwoman Lisa Bartlett, Treasurer Shari Freidenrich, and the Orange County Information Technology Application Development team have collaborated to create Mello, a responsive web based application designed to give Orange County homeowners easy access to their property tax information with full breakdowns of where those taxes and fees are going.
Mello utilizes property tax data directly from your secured property tax bill to display the base tax levies and also special assessments on properties, including Community Facilities Districts (CFD) that are commonly referred to as Mello Roos. The application allows for searches by address or by using an interactive map. Users who click on the property will see any applicable taxes or fees displayed, such as the 1 percent basic tax and other assessments.
“It has always been a priority of mine to find areas where we can make government more efficient and transparent,” said Chairwoman Bartlett. “Mello does just that by giving the taxpayers a breakdown of where every cent of their property taxes are going while also being innovative and efficient.”
Although the app was initially created to make Mello Roos assessments more visible, all taxpayers can benefit from using this app by easily seeing all taxes and fees being charged on their homes. The app also allows for greater transparency for Property Assessed Clean Energy programs, which are often promoted as loans, but are in fact special assessments.
“This app allows taxpayers to see where their tax dollars are going in a user-friendly format,” Treasurer Freidenrich said. “This continues our goal of 24/7 access to records, now with both an online option at ocgov.com/octaxbill and this newest app option. We encourage residents to visit the new site from any device using any web browser and view the taxes and fees on any parcel in the county.”
Mello was launched this week in partnership with real estate leaders from the Orange County Association of Realtors and can be accessed at mello.ocgov.com. It is available for all Orange County properties.
