Richard Nevins; Tax Policy Official

Richard Nevins, influential Democratic politician who served on the state Board of Equalization for 28 years and became known as an encyclopedia of tax policy, has died. He was 80.

Nevins died Sunday in a body surfing accident off Oceanside, according to his son Richard.

Respected for bringing an aura of professionalism to the obscure five-member board, Nevins was elected to seven four-year terms from the 4th District, which covers much of Southern California.

The board, with four elected members and the state controller as ex officio member, has served as an appeals body for property taxes; an arbiter of certain property assessments, including President Nixon’s San Clemente estate; and administrator and collector of state sales and business taxes for such items as cigarettes, alcohol and gasoline.

Although little known, the board wields great economic power, and the nonflamboyant Nevins became highly regarded for his extensive knowledge of ever-changing tax law.

“Although not the most exciting of politicians,” said a Times editorial urging his reelection for the seventh time in 1982, “Nevins works hard, and is the most knowledgeable member on the board.”

Various Republican opponents tried to unseat Nevins over the years, but voters repeatedly returned him to office.

“I have learned what makes California taxes go,” he told The Times in 1974, “and I am in a position to make informed judgments on what changes to make. It takes a long time to learn where things are.”

One change that Nevins vehemently opposed was Proposition 13, which limited property taxes and greatly changed the way California collects money to pay its bills. Nevins once said of the proposition’s late author, Utah-born Howard Jarvis: “We would have been better off if he had stayed in Utah.”

But after voters passed Proposition 13 in 1978, Nevins led colleagues in developing regulations and policy to minimize the initial problems it created for various levels of local government.

After announcing in 1985 that he would not seek an eighth term, Nevins remained neutral about the candidates who sought to replace him the next year. But characteristically, he offered all of them information about the specific duties of the job.

Born in Los Angeles, Nevins spent his entire life in Pasadena except for his four years at Yale and three years in the U.S. Army Air Force weather service. He began his career as a property and casualty insurance agent serving commercial and industrial clients.

Nevins was a stalwart of the Democratic Party, beginning in his youth as president of the California Federation of Young Democrats. He was a founding member of the California Democratic Council, served on the executive committee of the Democratic State Central Committee and was a delegate to three Democratic National Conventions, working on its Platform Committee in 1960 and Credentials Committee in 1964.

He was active in several tax-related professional groups, as well as on the board of the Los Angeles Urban League and the executive committee of the Pasadena NAACP.

Nevins also served as president of the Pasadena Historical Society and Pasadena Beautiful.

Nevins is survived by his wife of 55 years, Mary Lois; two more sons, William and Henry; five sisters, Katharine Schwarzenbach, Anne Schnieder, Louisa Miller, Sabra Clark and Dorothy Scully; a stepsister, Priscilla Flinn, and five grandchildren.

A funeral service is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. Friday at All Saints Episcopal Church, 132 Euclid Ave., Pasadena, with a reception following at the Pasadena Historical Society.

The family has asked that memorial donations be sent to the Pasadena Historical Society, 470 W. Walnut St., Pasadena, CA 91103.