Depending on the area your property is located, there may be charges necessary to pay off any voter-approved general obligation bonds or other indebtedness, special assessments, or direct levies. Typically, such indebtedness results in a small fraction of a percent increase in the tax rate.
Direct taxes are levied on the tax bill by the county tax collector on behalf of the local levying agency or district, not on behalf of the assessor, auditor-controller, and/or the county tax collector divisions. For more information, or if you disagree with a special assessment levied against your property, you must contact the district directly. However, you cannot refuse to pay your tax bill that contains the direct levy amount, even if the direct levy amount is under dispute.
An example of what would cause a direct assessment is installing a sewage system, near where I live in Pasadena many of the older homes used septic tanks and the city decided to require the homeowners to be linked to a sewer system. Since the city is not usually budgeted for projects like this the cost of the sewer system gets billed to the homeowner through a direct assessment which you will end up paying in addition to your regular property taxes. The things you need to pay for via a direct or special assessment do benefit you in some way!
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