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Sun campus won't be reassessed

by Sean Howell

Almanac Staff Writer

The Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park won't be reassessed, despite the fact that the company has changed hands, the city of Menlo Park has learned.

Oracle completed its purchase of the company in January, a deal valued at over $7 billion. While California law stipulates that property be reassessed when it changes hands so that property taxes are based on a more recent valuation of the property, the hardware giant has apparently found a way around that.

The property's current assessed value is $355.4 million, according to information on the county assessor's Web site.

Discussing the news at their June 8 meeting, City Council members said they were disappointed but not surprised by it. The fact that Oracle avoided a reassessment suggests that state law needs to be tightened, Councilman Heyward Robinson said.