California Proposition 15
The battle in California between supporters of property tax relief and critics of property tax breaks for Californians, still drags on in tedious fashion… specifically concerning Proposition 13 (in short, the ability to transfer parents property taxes, with the right to avoid property tax reassessment; with a parent to child exclusion – capped at 2% maximum tax rate) as well as Proposition 58 (in summary, Prop 58 helps heirs buyout sibling property while providing low rates on property tax transfers for beneficiaries, with a long-term low Prop 13 property tax base through a trust loan, while avoiding property tax reassessment at present day rates).
Critics of California property tax relief still repeat the same old talking points, like parrots, opining on the exaggerated need for cash from property taxes to “save the drowning school system from disaster; etc.” Whereas their Proposition 15 Split-Roll property tax would in fact be the very thing that would bring about economic disaster in California.
Split-Roll supporters even added a deceptive “exemption” from two to three million dollars in property value as a promotional trigger point, hoping that this deceptive and confusing formula will succeed in unraveling tax breaks for owners of industrial facilities and commercial properties – which they are now calling “Proposition 15”… a safe, innocuous sounding title that is actually cloaking a rather toxic, sinister process that would begin the slow, poisonous destruction of property tax relief in the sunny state of California.
Knowing that going after residential property tax benefits would be something like going after the popular Medicare program or the even more popular Affordable Care Act… Likewise, you don’t directly attack popular property tax benefits that millions of people love and depend on – first you start nibbling at the edges… then you work your way inward, towards destroying the center. It looks to us like that is exactly what is going on in California right now.
Like the Post Office nationwide, for example… if you dismantle the system internally, mail won’t be delivered on time, no matter what anyone tells you to the contrary. Sometimes things are exactly as they seem to be! So no matter what anyone says, after dismantling property tax breaks for commercial property owners, the next step is clearly to unravel property tax relief for home owners. Sometimes things are exactly as they appear to be.
Once critics of property tax relief start in on affluent landlords who own business rental properties, they won’t stop until they dismantle middle class commercial property owners… and then, of course, wealthy and then middle class home owners – until every single middle class American is scraped clean! Easy prey for them. Low hanging fruit. They call it a “wealth tax” in some states, and in California they’re calling it a “split-roll” tax. A new way to get more money from us, basically. One way or the other. It’s a similar ploy to ramp up and increase tax revenue they want us to pay. It’s plain to see.
It was retired, older couples and elderly widows who were being kicked out of their homes (that they resided in for 4, 5, 6 decades), basically due to unpaid or under-paid property taxes in 1974 and 1975, 1976… before Proposition 13 was finally passed by voters in 1978, thanks to Mr. Howard Jarvis and friends, at the Taxpayers Association in California.
Now, with Proposition 15, formerly the “split-roll” tax, underway – this time it will be middle class and working class “mom & pop” shops and consumer businesses renting store-fronts and offices in leased buildings, or Uber drivers who are home owners… who will be harassed by the Tax Man, and ultimately displaced, with nowhere comfortable and safe to go!
Wayne Lusvardi says in CaliforniaGlobe.com: “Proposition 15 – the so-called split-roll commercial and residential tax hike – on the November ballot, is being advertised as solely a commercial property tax. But there is a Trojan Horse contained in Proposition 15 that will unravel Proposition 13 property tax protections even for residential properties.
Single-family residential homes used for home offices or UBER drivers who park their cars at their owned residences will have their homes reclassified as commercial properties under proposed Proposition 15. Eventually, property taxes will be equalized by the legislature, and the mandates of Proposition 15 will apply to all owners who hold multiple homes and apartments, not just commercial properties. Moreover, small business owners will have the higher property taxes passed through to them in the form of higher rents and will not be able to stay in business after a couple of years.”
And guess who will pay the ultimate price for this so-called “split-roll” property tax? Higher commercial property taxes… Wait, let’s re-phrase that – MUCH higher commercial and industrial property taxes will ultimately be paid by the consumer. All of us.
Why? All the services and goods you have grown to depend on will go way up in price thanks to business, industrial and commercial property taxes going up – landlords renting our store space and office buildings will have no choice but to raise their rents to survive, and subsequently their tenants, who own gas stations and super markets and stores and strip-malls, and office buildings all over California, will have to raise their prices to keep from going flat out of business within 10, 12 months.
Moreover, this move would most likely open the door for critics of commercial and industrial property tax breaks, to eventually attack and unravel consumer property tax relief, including Proposition 58. As we all know, Prop 58 helps heirs buyout sibling property with the use of a trust loan, while locking in a low Proposition 13 property tax base, more or less forever.
Hence, if this new property tax passes… that sound of air whooshing out of a balloon you hear will be the air whooshing out of the economy all across the once great state of California.