The Next Battle: Amending Prop 13

California Calls has been planning ahead, regardless of whether Prop 30 passes or not. There’s a growing frustration by voters to find real solutions to our perpetual budget crises and a growing recognition that something has to be done.

One culprit of our current tax and fiscal dysfunction is Prop 13. This 1978 initiative completely changed the California tax system. It capped property taxes resulting in billions of lost revenue, and further starved the state’s coffers through a two-thirds vote requirement to increase any taxes in the legislature. Immediately after its passage, California lost billions in revenue, and has not been able to recover funding for schools, parks, libraries and other services.

While some homeowners got a needed break on their rising property taxes, the cap on commercial property has been destructive. Huge profitable businesses that own large parcels of land – like Google and Hewlett Packard — pay a tiny fraction in property tax. The lion’s share of property tax is now paid by homeowners, and dramatic disparities exist between similar land parcels. These unexpected consequences result in billions of dollars lost to California’s schools and services every year.

According to Lenny Goldberg of the California Tax Reform Association, “Prop 13 created a situation where some of richest corporations in world are paying a trivial level of state taxes relative to a vastly increased wealth.”

For this reason, California Calls is exploring an ambitious project to research and analyze the commercial property tax in major counties and to document the disparities and problems of the current system. Stay tuned for more details post-election!

Largest Community-Labor field program aims to deliver the winning margin on Prop 30

At California Calls, we recognize that a strong progressive movement is critical to restoring the California Dream. That’s why California Calls Action Fund is a proud member of Reclaim California’s Future, the powerful grassroots coalition of educators and community leaders that sponsored the Millionaires Tax, and has now built a growing and visible coalition in support of Prop 30 and against Prop 32.

Reclaim’s statewide field campaign will make its presence felt in 23 counties and aims to deliver 3-5% of the votes needed to pass Prop 30—over 250,000 ballots. This margin will be decisive in this race, which is tightening each day. Prop 30 has enjoyed majority support in polling throughout the last few months but has suffered in the face of attacks from a rival effort bankrolled by civil rights attorney and heiress Molly Munger and outright opposition funded by her brother Charles Munger.

Older, white, more affluent and conservative voters generally carry the day in California elections. The Reclaim California’s Future Coalition seeks to change this by reaching out to voters that most mainstream campaigns simply overlook. The coalition’s goal is to activate voters who can make the difference in the expected close election on Prop 30. The focus is on African-American, Latino, and Asian-American voters.

“Young voters and people of color are the least likely to vote, but are the most supportive of progressive solutions to fund education critical services and public safety like Prop 30,” said Anthony Thigpenn, Chairperson of California Calls. “To get these voters to the polls, our coalition is mobilizing thousands of volunteers from 80 organizations. We’re working from vote centers in 23 counties in every region of the state and talking to 500,000 new and occasional voters – from Auburn to Escondido. This is an unprecedented effort, the largest community-labor field effort ever put together to turn out 250,000 to the polls in California.”

For more information: www.reclaimcaliforniasfuture.org

277,260 Pledge to vote Yes on Prop 30 – With more on the way

Final Push to Reach Voters in Every Corner of the State

California Calls Action Fund, the 501c4 sister organization of California Calls, is ramping up for its final phase of a massive-get-out the-vote program to deliver the winning margin for progressive victories on Election Day. After four weeks of intensive phoning and door knocking, 593 daily outreach workers and 2300 volunteers have secured support for Prop 30 from 277,000 new and occasional voters. The goal: mobilize at least 200,000 who typically stay home on Election Day — a number big enough to close the gap in a several razor-thin races.

The California Calls Action Fund is focused on passing Prop 30. The ballot measure would raise $6 billion in new revenues and put us on the right track toward funding California’s future. With polls showing support for Prop 30 teetering around 50%, the Action Fund is determined to move enough newly registered and infrequent voters to the polls to create the tipping point for winning. California Calls, with a grassroots network of 2,300 volunteers, the infrastructure to make hundreds of thousands of phone calls, and a track record of increasing voter turn-out among communities of color, is uniquely suited to provide this winning margin.

The other target: defeat Prop 32, a ballot measure that claims to be about campaign finance reform but which would silence the voice of working people while allowing corporate, Super PAC and wealthy anonymous donors to dominate the election debate.

Voter mobilization can create a vital tipping point in this election. It’s another step towards a long-term vision of restoring the California Dream by bringing a greater spectrum of voices into the policy debate.