Supporters of a property tax surcharge that would have undermined Proposition 13 have abandoned efforts to qualify their measure for the November ballot.
The property-tax initiative, dubbed the “Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Act,” aimed to create a tax surcharge on all commercial and residential properties in the state assessed at over $3 million.
Collecting the 585,407 signatures required by March 21 proved too high a hurdle, campaign strategist Bill Carrick said in this Sacramento Business Journal story. Moreover, Carrick said the initiative would have faced plenty of competition for tax dollars if it managed to appear before voters this fall, a concern echoed by Conway Collis, a former member of the California State Board of Equalization.
“The 2016 ballot has become too crowded with too many revenue raising measures on it,” said Collis, the primary backer of the initiative, according to this Sacramento Bee article. “Consequently it makes more sense to qualify early for a later ballot.” The Business Journal reported that the initiative may resurface in 2018.
In addition to Collis, much of the funding for the initiative was coming from anti-poverty groups including the Los Angeles-based Daughters of Charity Foundation.
The proposal, applied on a sliding scale, would have added a:
- 0.3 percent tax on property assessed between $3 million and $5 million.
- 0.6 percent on property between $5 million and $10 million
- 0.8 percent on property in excess of $10 million.
The California Apartment Association, along with other members of Californians to Stop Higher Property Taxes, opposed the measure.
In a recent op-ed, Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association said, “This would reinstate a system where increases in home value would be penalized with much higher taxes as occurred prior to Proposition 13.
Voters approved Prop. 13 by a 65 percent vote in 1978. The proposition sets strict limits on property taxes, basing them on 1 percent of a property’s value at the time of sale and capping increases in assessed value at 2 percent annually. This shields the owner from taxes tied to huge spikes in market value.