---
type: "Bill"
title: "Property taxation: exemption: low-value properties."
description: "The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature, with the approval of 23 of the membership of each legislative house, to allow a county board of supervisors to exempt from property taxation those properties having a full value too low to justify the costs of assessment and collection. Existing property tax law implementing this authority generally limits any exemption granted under this constitutional provision by a county board of supervisors to real property with a total base year value, or personal property with a full value, not exceeding $10,000. Existing property tax law increases this limit to $50,000 in the case of a possessory interest, for a temporary and transitory use, in a publicly owned fairground, fairground facility, convention facility, or cultural facility."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 608"
citation: "California AB 608 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Property taxation: exemption: low-value properties."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Petrie-Norris"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 23
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2019-02-14"
last_action: "2019-07-12"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/95dd0512-c3a6-4594-b040-24b038a259b4"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB608"
source_hash: "f50d1639e424d8dcb047517724e6b66bb9b51c2673e6d67ffcbf3397f6224267"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 608 (20192020) — Property taxation: exemption: low-value properties.

The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature, with the approval of 23 of the membership of each legislative house, to allow a county board of supervisors to exempt from property taxation those properties having a full value too low to justify the costs of assessment and collection. Existing property tax law implementing this authority generally limits any exemption granted under this constitutional provision by a county board of supervisors to real property with a total base year value, or personal property with a full value, not exceeding $10,000. Existing property tax law increases this limit to $50,000 in the case of a possessory interest, for a temporary and transitory use, in a publicly owned fairground, fairground facility, convention facility, or cultural facility.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/14/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB608&version=20190AB60899INT)
2. **03/11/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB608&version=20190AB60898AMD)
3. **04/01/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB608&version=20190AB60897AMD)
4. **07/12/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB608&version=20190AB60895CHP)
5. **AB608** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB608)
6. **07/03/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB608&version=20190AB60896ENR)

## Votes

- AB 608 Petrie-Norris Consent Calendar Second Day — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar AB608 — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **11–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Petrie-Norris — primary (person)
- Mullin — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-02-14** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2019-02-15** From printer. May be heard in committee March 17.
- **2019-02-28** Referred to Com. on REV. & TAX. `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-11** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on REV. & TAX. Read second time and amended. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-03-12** Re-referred to Com. on REV. & TAX. `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-18** In committee: Hearing for testimony only.
- **2019-04-01** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on REV. & TAX. Read second time and amended. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-04-02** Re-referred to Com. on REV. & TAX. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-09** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (April 8). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-04-24** Coauthors revised.
- **2019-04-24** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (April 24). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-04-25** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 1475.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-05-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2019-05-16** Referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-12** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (June 12). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-24** From committee: Be ordered to second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to Consent Calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2019-06-25** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-07-01** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 1877.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-07-01** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2019-07-08** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2019-07-12** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2019-07-12** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 92, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/95dd0512-c3a6-4594-b040-24b038a259b4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).