Its original mandate was to ensure that property tax assessments were uniform and equal across all counties in the state.

In 2004, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released a 2,500-page report seeking to merge the Board with other agencies and then promoted a bill by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk to do just that.

[3] In March 2017, an audit by the California Department of Finance revealed missing funds and signs of nepotism, leading to calls for the governor to put the Board under a public trustee.

[6][7] In June 2017, the California Department of Justice began a criminal investigation into the members of the Board.

[8] On June 27, 2017, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law legislation stripping the Board of many of its powers.

[11] The Los Angeles Times editorial board called for ACA-11 and ACA-9, which would abolish the elected position of California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, to pass the legislature and appear before voters as a ballot proposition.

[12] For the purposes of tax administration, the BOE divides the state into four Equalization districts, each with its own elected board member.

[14] The First Equalization District is made up of the following counties: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, the portion of San Bernardino outside of the San Bernardino panhandle, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Tuolumne, Yuba, and Yolo.