Six-figure donations for anti-poverty ballot proposal

Major money has begun to flow into the effort to qualify a ballot measure that would impose a property tax surcharge on expensive homes to pay for anti-poverty programs.

On Christmas Eve, the Making Poverty History campaign committee reported a $700,000 donation from the Daughters of Charity Foundation. The money brought to $900,000 the total contributed by the Los Angeles-based group, a Christian organization dedicated to serving the poor.

Other major donors to the measure are Los Angeles entrepreneur Joseph Sanberg, who has given $150,000; St. John’s Well Child and Family Center and the Youth Policy Institute, Inc., which each donated $50,000.

The Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Act is one of several tax-increase proposals seeking to qualify for the November 2016 ballot. It would impose a surcharge on property valued at $3 million or more to raise money for a bevy of various health, education and social programs.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that the surcharge would raise $6 billion to $7 billion in 2017-18, with the annual revenue growing over time.

Proponents need to collect 585,407 valid voter signatures by a March 21 deadline.

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 3:22 PM.