Tag Archives: Prop 13

Watered Down Bill to “Reform” Corporate Property Tax Loophole Dies in Committee

One of the several unintended consequences of Prop 13, the 1978 initiative that froze homeowner and commercial property tax rates, was creating a property tax system riddled with loopholes that give commercial property owners the ability to avoid paying billions in tax dollars for schools, libraries and critical neighborhood services.  Specifically, the “change of ownership”…

The Next Big Steps to Funding our Future

Did you know that before Prop 13 was passed, commercial properties and residential properties contributed equally (about 50/50) to the local tax base? But by 2012, residential properties were carrying the lion’s share (an average of 72%), while the share paid by commercial properties—some of them the biggest multi-national corporations in the world—drastically declined? Neither…

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…