Daily Post Editorial
The race for Santa Clara County assessor has been infuriating, to say the least, because of the behavior of the incumbent and one of the candidates.
Larry Stone, who has been assessor for 30 years, decided to step down now rather than at the end of his term a year from now. Had he waited for the end of his term, the office of assessor would have appeared on next year’s ballot along with many other races. Instead, by leaving now, he’s creating a single-office, small turnout race, with the person he endorsed having a head start over outside candidates.
This kind of gamesmanship fuels cynicism by voters.
Dishonest promise
It gets worse. One of the two finalists for the job has spouting outright lies about what he would do if elected.
Rishi Kumar, a former Saratoga City Councilman and perennial Congressional candidate, initially claimed that as assessor, he would exempt anyone over 60 from paying property taxes.
If elected, he wouldn’t have the authority to do that. The job doesn’t involve setting tax rates. The job of assessor is to identify all taxable property for assessment purposes and send a list of those properties (called the roll) to the tax collector.
Either Kumar either didn’t understand the responsibilities of the job he’s seeking or he thought he could take advantage ignorance of voters. When he got caught, he amended his position and said he would work on a statewide ballot proposition to exempt seniors.
Either way, this guy doesn’t deserve your vote.
Fligor is ready to serve
The candidate who should be elected is Los Altos Councilwoman Neysa Fligor, who has worked as an attorney in the assessor’s office and later returned as special assistant to Assessor Stone.
The job pays about $300,000 a year and there’s no term limits on assessor, meaning that whomever wins will be able to keep the job for life as long as they don’t become embroiled in a scandal that forces them out.
In recommending Fligor, we’re suspicious because she’s the “insider’s choice” — all the big shots in the county have lined up behind her. But given the alternative, she’s the best choice for the job.
She has the experience and knowledge necessary to serve as assessor.
With everyone busy preparing for Christmas and New Years, many voters might have forgotten that this vote-by-mail election is taking place. Dec. 30 is the deadline to return ballots. We urge you to take a few minutes, fill out your ballot and drop it in the mail now.
Why no mention of Rishi’s hit and run on September 19, 2019 in Cupertino. Why didn’t you ask him why he fled the scene? Even though nobody is dead, that doesn’t say much about his character.
Kumar’s website is filled with a bunch of lies. He was told he was lying when he claimed he would have the authority to exempt seniors from property taxes, so he said he would put a proposition on the state ballot for the exemption. That will never happen. It will take millions of dollars to pay signature-gatherers to get the names necessary to force such an initiative. He started talking about a ballot measure because he caught lying about an assessor’s ability to exempt seniors from taxes.
He also claims on his website that his opponent favors higher taxes. So what? As assessor, she can’t raise taxes.
In every election, he always has a poll saying he will win. He did this every time he ran against Anna Eshoo, and he lost badly each time. Now he’s pulling the same trick in this race.
Rishi is a con-man. We can’t trust this guy anywhere near our money.
I’ll vote for Kumar. Fligor already voted to raise my property taxes when she voted for Regional Measure 4 which would’ve raised taxes on every house in my neighborhood by almost $27,000.
It’s hard enough to live here already, and the county just thinks homeowners are an endless piggybank. More than half the seniors I know have an adult child living with them due to lack of affordability and Supervisors just don’t care.
Kumar may not be perfect, but he’s the first candidate here in twenty years running on an anti tax campaign.
May God bless you Rishi Kumar, I hope you win.
It’s good to see the Daily Post addressing the issues in this assessor race; the incumbent’s behavior definitely warrants scrutiny.
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Great summary of the race. I agree with you that both candidates are infuriating. I hope to see one of the candidates who finished third or fourth renew the challenge a year from now.
Is there any office, unrelated to the other offices, that Kumar hasn’t run for?
Seriously: how many times do I have to not vote for this guy, because he seems unlikeable, flimsy, and without any actual core. If there was a possibility of running as a MAGA figure and winning, does anybody really doubt he’d be trying to do that?
People who run for any office because it’s open…I have known one of these guys, the GOP candidate in Aptos who never won an election, but lived off the donations to the GOP because nobody else would run for unwinnable offices. Not a quality person.
Life is Hard seems to be fond of gross false claims like his candidate Kumar. For the record, Regional Measure 4 would have raised property taxes by $19 per $100,000 in ASSESSED value (not market value). The average assessed home value in Palo Alto is $1.4 million which means RM4 would have raised the tax by $266. That is 1% of what Life is Hard claimed above. Sounds about right by Kumar math.