Am I understanding that the counties are expected to send all their property taxe money collected to Sacramento & then beg for the money back to run their schools. police, fire, etc????
What a scam if so.
You got it pretty much correct.
Pre Prop 13 - Counties collected property tax and 50% of same went to schools locally. The state never saw it. Brown and the legislature decided they needed to control the entire revenue stream AFTER Prop 13, so they modified the law to require all revenues at the county level to come to the state - where the state legislature then gets to doll out the money. This is why we have the constant fiasco called the California Budget process.
So Counties, cities, and schools live completely off of the state doll.