Revisiting Commercial Property Tax Reform

With the new revenue generated from the passage of Prop 30 in 2012, California avoided deep cuts in education and human services, and actually began restoring some funding for the first time in many years.  However a tremendous need continues for additional revenues to reverse the several years of devastating budget cuts and achieve adequate funding for California’s K-12, community college and UC/CSU system, health and human services, fire and police services, and physical infrastructure.  Even with the slowly recovering economy, a critical question faced by policy makers and advocates is how to raise the scale of resources needed to restore the state’s education system, social safety net, economic opportunities for all residents that was once the California dream.

Many observers suggest that California’s property tax system is unequal, uncompetitive, and deficit-inducing – particularly as it applies to commercial property. In an exploratory project with California Calls and the California Tax Reform Association (CTRA), the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) reviewed the most recent literature and obtained updated property tax assessment data to deepen understanding of this topic. The preliminary findings indicate that there has been a drastic shift in property tax burden away from commercial to residential properties and commercial property seems to be undervalued in many counties.

California Calls and our partners are now gearing up for the second phase of this exploratory effort.  The objectives of this next phase are:

  • Complete the research on the most current property tax assessments data and provide a comprehensive analysis of the impact of current commercial property tax policies on state and county revenue.
  • Assess current public awareness, understanding, and attitudes on property taxes and explore issue framing and messaging to educate the public on the results of the research.
  • Build broader public awareness of current commercial property tax policies and their implications.
  • Convene a series of new conversations on the implications of current commercial property tax policies and possible remedies.

Over the next month, California Calls will convene several committees to initiate research and planning towards accomplishing these objectives.

Read More

California Calls Member Organizations Dig Deep for Voter Data

In the old days of grassroots organizing, being able to target specific groups of voters for issue education meant printing thousands of sheets of voter data and sorting it by hand.  With the advent of electronic voter databases, that has all changed. Data can now be accessed online in a smart, strategic and targeted manner.

A few weeks ago, representatives from California Calls’ anchor groups took part in a training to learn the mechanics of California-based Political Data, Inc., otherwise known in the political world as PDI. The business has been around since 1987 and their extensive state voter database is known for its accuracy and ease of use. Their voter file includes the most up-to-date information on voting history and behavior, voter ethnicities and socio-economic profiles.

943299_744974002198918_2103011596_nFifty-one field organizers left the training with new skills, access to their own “sub-account,” and the confidence to share what they learned with others at their organization.

By having direct access to this data, anchors will be able to increase their efficiency and effectiveness in organizing at the local level. Participants were trained on how to use these tools to find out more about their supportive voter base, conduct ongoing education with voters, and enter and analyze the results of their outreach.

The most valuable aspect of the training was learning how to create reports and “go as deep as we want to go,” said Christopher Wilson, the civic engagement director for Alliance San Diego.

“Now we can do micro-targeting. If we want to focus all of our attention on Porter Elementary School, for example, I can go into PDI myself and check out that neighborhood and sort it out according to our needs. It’s really focused follow-up of potential new activists, allowing us to go into the areas we want and map it all out.”

Jessamyn Sabbag, deputy director of Oakland Rising, says she looks forward to being more independent and not having to rely on others within the organization to answer her questions. She says they also plan to customize their civic engagement programs and bring more focus to their local work.

“We are interested in labeling language capacity, like making a list of Spanish speaking voters because we have a bunch of monolingual, Spanish-speaking organizers who don’t speak very good English. Now we can bring them in and have them target Spanish-speaking voters and they’ll do an amazing job. The same goes with Vietnamese organizers and voters.”

She said she also wants to be able to pull out lists labeling young voters of color in order to do more targeted and tailored outreach.

Read More

The Affordable Care Act: Engaging Voters Around Good Government

Ouestion_Widget1California Calls believes that there are things you shouldn’t have to worry about, like how you can afford to go to the doctor or having to choose between food and prescription medication. The Affordable Care Act helps ease these types of worries for millions of Californians. Enrollment for the new healthcare coverage started October 1 of this year and now, for the first time in history, most Californians have access to quality affordable healthcare coverage.

For weeks leading up to this historic day, California Calls educated voters across the state about how the Affordable Care Act affects them and how they can get enrolled. We reached out to over 20,000 voters through social media, email, and a new section of the California Calls website dedicated to making sure everyone has the facts.

On September 29th, over 13,000 voters joined California Calls for a Telephone Town Hall to answer questions about how the new law will impact them and their families. A panel of experts, which included Dr. Paul Song, Executive Chairman of California Calls member organization Courage Campaign; Anthony Wright, Executive Director of Health Access and Tamika Butler, California Director of Young Invincibles answered questions about how the Affordable Care Act will impact their current insurance through their employers or government programs like Medicare and Medi-cal, who is eligible and how to enroll in new affordable coverage, and how to get young people healthcare coverage. Voters participated on the phone, via live webcast, and on Twitter.

Voters weighed in on the new law by answering poll questions during the call. 64% of the voters on the call believe the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, will benefit them or someone they know. That’s why beginning on October 14th, our member organizations will be dispatching over 1,000 grassroots leaders and volunteers across the state for four weeks. Leaders will talk to 100,000 individual voters and educate them on how the Affordable Care Act will benefit and equip them with the resources they need to spread the word to their family, friends and neighbors.

During our fall civic engagement program, we’ll be expanding our technology and experimenting with new ways to make our organizing more effective and efficient using smartphone technology to canvass door-to-door, and text messaging, email, and social media to stay in contact with voters after we talk to them.

This fall we will also continue expanding the formal base of 103,000 voters who have agreed with our vision for California and committed to vote in every election for policies that make California great again. These are  things like good jobs for everyone, smart government that invests in our future, and a fair tax system that makes sure corporations pay their fair share.

Read More

Older posts
Newer posts