A statewide, grassroots campaign to close the corporate loophole in Prop. 13 will generate $11 billion a year for our schools and public services while maintaining protections for residential property owners
Since Prop. 13 passed, the property tax burden in California has dramatically shifted from commercial property to residential property. Today, homeowners pay 72% of property taxes, while commercial properties only pay 28%.
California Proposition 13, passed in 1978, ensures valuations of property may not grow by more than 2% annually, and market value reassessment may only occur with a change of ownership.
On average homes change hands in California every 10 years while some large commercial properties rarely change hands, so are rarely reassessed. California is the only state in the country that does not regularly reassess commercial property.
The Prop. 13 Corporate Loophole incentivizes land owners holding on to property for decades without doing anything productive with it. Under the current system, two identical businesses side-by-side may pay drastically different property taxes. This penalizes new businesses by making them subsidize their established competitors’ property tax.
Schools and local communities have suffered from 40 years of disinvestment due to the Prop. 13 Corporate Loophole.
It’s time to close this loophole and make large commercial property owners pay their fair share in order to restore vital funding for:
Schools and Community Colleges
Parks
Roads and Bridges
Firefighters and First Responders
Affordable Housing and Homeless Services
Libraries
Public Transportation
Health Clinics and Trauma Centers
The California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act of is the only fair way to restore billions of dollars of reliable revenue every year for our schools and local communities without raising taxes on homeowners, renters, or small businesses.
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