After 26 virtually unopposed years, Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone may finally have met a match in Gary Kremen.

Santa Clara County property taxes are due April 10, but some residents may be exempt without even knowing it.

While one measure, Prop. 15 failed, another ballot measure to change the tax system passed, marking a bittersweet election for everyone.

About 47,000 county homeowners will soon find out that their homes are worth more than what they paid for them. Assessor Larry Stone announced in a press release Thursday that the South Bay’s residential property market continues to trend upward.

Almost half a million assessment notices went out to Santa Clara County property owners today, and following three years of minimal or negative growth in assessed property values, the county reports its first solid increase since 2008. Overall, total net assessed value of all real business and personal property values increased by 3.25 percent to $308.8 billion.

This week, Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone has agreed to answer questions from San Jose Inside readers. He is the sixth public official to participate in this series. Questions are selected from online posts to this site.

It is pretty common to hear from residents, when discussing our City budget: “But i pay my property taxes.” As I have covered before on a prior blog post, your property tax bill does not flow 100 percent to the City. Much of it is taken by the school districts, County, community colleges and special districts. (This does not include various parcel taxes, school bonds, hospital bonds, that are collected via your property tax bill.) Even with all these other government entities taking nearly 90 percent of your property tax, this remaining portion is the number-one source of revenue, by a large measure, for the City of San Jose.