Nakawatase: 32,573 Defaulted San Diego Tax Bills Is a Warning Sign, Not a Press Opportunity
Appointed Treasurer Larry Cohen lectures struggling homeowners about penalties; CPA Shirley Nakawatase says the office should be helping them instead
SAN DIEGO (September 17, 2026) – Shirley Nakawatase, Certified Public Accountant and candidate for San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector, responded today to appointed Treasurer Larry Cohen's announcement that his office is mailing default notices to 32,573 property owners who could not pay their 2025-26 property taxes.
"Larry Cohen just announced that more than 32,000 San Diego families and small businesses fell behind on their property taxes, and his big message was a reminder that the meter is running," Nakawatase said. "18% a year, plus fees. That isn't leadership. That's a collections notice with a press release stapled to it."
Nakawatase noted that the Treasurer-Tax Collector's job is not simply to mail bills and count penalties. The office manages billions of dollars in public funds and is the first point of contact for taxpayers in trouble.
"I have spent more than 40 years as a CPA sitting across the table from people trying to understand their finances" Nakawatase said. "The first thing you do is compassionately give them clarity on their options, not tell them it's going to get worse. Every one of those 32,573 letters should have led with the five-year payment plan and the office's authority to cancel penalties when the failure to pay was beyond the taxpayer's control. Instead, the taxpayer had to read to the bottom of a news story to find it."
Nakawatase also questioned why the office had little to say about the cause of the problem.
"32,000 defaults in a county with property values this high is a symptom of an affordability crisis that the politicians running this region created," she said. "Larry Cohen is a career political operative who was handed this job by other politicians. He has never signed the front of a payroll check, never certified a financial statement, and never had to manage a small business like I have. That is the difference in this race."
"The 2026-27 bills go online in a couple of weeks, and the first installment is due November 1," Nakawatase said. "Thousands of the same families are about to get hit again. If Larry Cohen wants to spend the next six weeks reminding people how expensive he can make their mistakes, that's his choice. I'll spend them explaining how a CPA would run this office for the taxpayer, not for the politicians who appointed him."
Shirley Nakawatase is a CPA with more than 40 years of experience in accounting, auditing, and financial management. She is running for San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector in the November 3, 2026, general election.
Written by Julie M. Walke | September 17, 2026 | Walke Communications
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