Big real estate interests managed to defeat Prop 15, intended to raise taxes on commercial real estate to produce billions for public schools.
The Los Angeles Times reports:
SACRAMENTO —
California voters have rejected Proposition 15, a ballot measure that sought to force large businesses to pay higher property taxes but likely fell victim to concerns about its economic impact on employers and consumers amid the pandemic-sparked recession.
The defeat, projected by the Associated Press on Tuesday, came with unofficial results showing almost 52% of votes were cast against the measure — a level of opposition that remained consistent through the early counting of ballots on Nov. 3 and the week that followed. While returns won’t be certified until early next month, the AP analysis concluded that there are unlikely to be enough ballots remaining to change the outcome.
“California voters understood the very real threat Proposition 15 presented to small businesses, farmers and consumers,” Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce, said in a written statement. “Voters in California smartly recognized that enacting the largest tax hike in California history would have been devastating to jobs, our economy and California’s future competitiveness.”
Since its inception, Proposition 15 was a fight about a different ballot measure — Proposition 13, the 1978 landmark initiative that created a tight cap on property values and tax rates. The new proposal’s supporters spent years crafting their plan to strip high-value business properties from the protections provided by Proposition 13, arguing that it had allowed powerful corporations to avoid paying property taxes they could easily afford. The November ballot measure could have generated as much as $11.5 billion a year for public schools and local government services once fully implemented.
Where Proposition 13 sets the value of a property by its purchase price and caps the annual tax at 1% of the value, Proposition 15 would have generated new tax revenue by allowing more frequent valuations of commercial and industrial property holdings worth $3 million or more. Some lower-valued properties would have also been swept into the system because their owners have large portfolios of property across California.
Proposition 15 was explicit in its protection of residential property tax rules, though some of its opponents ominously warned that it was the first step toward a complete overhaul, or outright repeal, of Proposition 13...
Voters were not swayed by the promise of new, substantial tax revenue. Approximately 40% of the revenue would have been sent to K-12 schools and community colleges, while the remaining 60% would go to counties, cities and special districts for services such as law enforcement and fire suppression. The Berkeley poll found that less than a majority of middle-aged voters and those who described themselves as moderates or conservatives believed the new tax revenue was needed.
While the homeowner tax protections of Proposition 13 have remained strongly popular over the last four decades, liberal interest groups and labor unions believed few voters realized that the low-tax rules also applied to multimillion-dollar corporations. Numerous studies revealed that many of these companies, many headquartered in Southern California and the Bay Area, operate in facilities where land values have changed very little since the 1970s — even as new businesses and homeowners alike pay taxes on property assessed more closely to market value.
Business groups that funded the opposition effort — contributing to a campaign with combined donations of more than $125 million — sought to divert attention away from large corporations and focus on Proposition 15’s potential impact on small businesses. Their advertising campaign hammered away at the fact that business owners who lease their location are often required to pay some, or all, of the building owner’s property taxes.
Unrelated to this, but here’s some more really discouraging news about what’s been happening to America’s students:
https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2020/11/more-than-half-the-high-schoolers-in-this-oregon-district-are-failing-at-least-one-class-with-week-to-go.html
Wow, so disappointing that voters would vote against their own best interests. The corporate elites mounted a very successful propaganda campaign to dupe the voters to slit their own wrists with a big smile on their faces. Oh, don’t mind the blood, that can be mopped up quite easily with our new improved jiffy spiffy mop.
Joe,
Then they sell you that mop.
The tax increase in Prop 15 was solely for large commercial enterprises, which managed to persuade voters that it was a foot in the door and their homes would be next.
They also slit their own wrists with the approval of Prop 22, which stripped worker protections from people working in the gig economy. Now the tech giants are looking to export this model to other states.
Prop 22 was heavily funded by Silicon Valley tech giants. Among the folks working for the tech giants to pass this monstrosity were Kamala Harris’ brother-in-law and several high-level Obama staffers.
https://prospect.org/labor/kamala-harris-uber-test-california-ride-hailing-law/
An FCC ruling I remember which people really opposed at the time..
The fairness doctrine had two basic elements: It required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials. The doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that contrasting viewpoints be presented. The demise of this FCC rule has been considered by some to be a contributing factor for the rising level of party polarization in the United States.[2][3]
I own a home in California and I can tell you without any doubt that I pay more than 1% of the value of my property for the annual property tax.
In fact, as I wrote this comment, I had the latest property tax bill from the state in front of me. I dug it out.
The Prop 13, 1% property tax on my house comes to $3848.39 annually.
But that is not the total.
The total I have to pay is $5,233.40 for 2020-2021, because of special taxes & and assessments added to the 1%. I bought this fixer upper for $362 in 2016.
That list beyond Prop 13’s 1% has 20 items on it and seven go to the local public school district, Pittsburg Unified. What the local public school district gets from my one little house out of about 17,000 households adds up to more than $500.
If Pittsburg Unified just got $500 from each household, that adds up to $8,500,000, but since my house is at the low end of home values where I live, that amount has to be a lot more.
The reporter that wrote that LA Times piece was not doing his or her job and does not know what they are talking about.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Pittsburg-California.html
Correction $362,000. not $362. I left off the “k”.
A $362 house would undoubtedly be a real fixer upper.
California is more complicated than people think: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/10/california-ballot-proposition-22-liberal-congress.
It’s actually not complicated at all if you consider that Big Money rules in California. Even Big Party is secondary to Bjg money.
The win for Lyft and Uber is a perfect example.
Mirrors on the ceiling
Pink champagne on ice
You are all just prisoners there
Of your own device
And in the master’s chambers
You gather for the feast
You stab it with your steely knives
But you just can’t kill the beast
(From Hotel California, by the Eagles, with a few minor changes)
I worked in LA for a couple years, doing contract work for a company there and iving in hotels near Long Beach, and actually stayed in several hotels with mirrors on the ceiling. I was there during the Northridge earthquake in the early 90’s, though luckily was not staying in a hotel with a mirror on the ceiling at the time. But that always worried me.
I often stayed in budget motels, and one of the hotels with a mirror on the ceiling was actually kind of a brothel (a place where prostitutes hung out). But hey, it was only about $30 bucks a night (the hotel, don’t know how much the prostitutes charged)
Maybe the motel had a special deal, but I never checked.
Come to think of it, I think the nightly rate was only $25 if you stayed for a month at a time, like I normally did.
Can’t remember the name, but it was just south of Seal Beach along PCH.