Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• MELLO-ROOS BONDS
  
  The Mello-Roos (named for its legislative sponsors) Community Facilities District Act of 1982 established another method whereby almost every municipal subdivision of the state may form a special, separate district to finance a long list of public facilities by the sale of bonds and finance certain public services on a pay-as-you-go basis. These Community Facilities Districts are formed and bond issues authorized by a two-thirds vote of the property owners in the district. Typically the only voters in a district are one or more real estate developers who own or have an option on all of the land in the district. These land-based financings were nicknamed "dirt bonds" by the Bond Advisor years ago. Bonds are sold to finance facilities that can include schools, parks, libraries, public utilities and other forms of infrastructure. The Districts may provide public services that include police and fire protection, recreation programs, area maintenance, library services, flood and storm drainage. Bonded debt service and/or the public services are paid for by special taxes levied on the real property within the district. As the developer subdivides and sells off the land the new property owner assumes the tax burden. Tax delinquencies can lead to fines and penalties and ultimately foreclosure and sale. The ultimate security for Mello-Roos bonds is the value of the real property being taxed, consequently a provision in the law requires the appraised value of the land be three times the bonded debt. Recent foreclosure sales have cast doubts on the skills of the appraisers, and underscore the riskiness of some of this debt when a severe real estate slump hits developers.
  
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