Pro-business campaign criticizes ballot language on California property tax initiative
A business-backed group fighting an initiative that would raise taxes on multi-million dollar commercial properties is criticizing how the measure is presented on the ballot language voters will see this fall, contending it obscures a tax hike.
Known as Proposition 15, the so-called “split-roll” property tax overhaul would bring in as much as nearly $12 billion each year for local governments by reassessing multi-million dollar commercial and industrial property at market rates.
It wouldn’t touch residential properties, leaving them protected by the 1978 law that prevents new assessments unless a property changes hands. That makes the split roll, with one assessment procedure for commercial properties and another for homes.
The campaign against the initiative argues the ballot language approved by Attorney General Xavier Becerra overemphasizes revenue for popular government services while underplaying how it would impact California businesses.
“Left with limited ways to disguise the largest property tax increase in state history, the attorney general falsely claims the measure ‘increases funding sources,’ deceiving voters into thinking these ‘sources’ — small businesses, farmers, ranchers, and day care centers — aren’t already paying property taxes,” the campaign, which is led by the California Business Roundtable, wrote in a statement.
Becerra, a Democrat, wrote in the official title that the measure “increases funding sources” for schools and other local governments by the property tax overhaul, which would require that commercial and industrial property worth more than $3 million is no longer taxed based on “purchase price.”
The short, bullet-point description — set to be on the November ballot — also mentions the words “tax” and “increased property taxes.”
Alex Stack, the spokesman for the pro-Prop. 15 campaign, stood by Becerra’s wording. He said in a statement that the language gives voters a “clear understanding” of what the property tax overhaul would mean for California and called it “a very positive sign for the campaign’s path to victory.”
Public employee unions, such as the California Teachers Association, are the main proponents for the split-roll initiative. They contend California’s property tax limits have unfairly benefited longtime commercial landowners.
The wording of California’s propositions on the November ballot has great sway on their ultimate decision. But critics say that state attorneys can use their power over the ballot language to score political points, casting some initiatives in a favorable light and others — typically those that go against their respective party’s wishes — in a not-so-favorable one.
Opponents to a 2018 initiative that aimed to repeal gas tax increase said Becerra issued a “misleading” title and summary to the ballot measure in an effort to sink the proposal. That proposition failed in the general election that November, upholding the gas tax and vehicle fee increases former Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in 2017.
Becerra’s predecessor, Sen. Kamala Harris, also came under fire when her description of a proposition to reform pensions was criticized among conservatives for downplaying the potential impacts of the initiative. The pension initiative’s supporters pulled the measure from the ballot and voters did not see it.
And in 1996, then-attorney general Daniel Lungren, a Republican, described an initiative banning on affirmative action without mentioning the words “affirmative action” on the ballot. Voters passed the initiative, Proposition 209.
Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, say the state’s top attorney — a partisan, elected official — shouldn’t have the power to set ballot language. Republicans hold no statewide elected office in California.
He introduced a constitutional amendment last year that would assign the task of writing up the description to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, Sacramento’s nonpartisan fiscal and policy adviser that also drafts detailed analyses of ballot measures and bills. It died in the Assembly roughly along party lines.
Kiley said he believes that the attorney general’s power over the ballot language stands in the way of giving Californians a say in policy decisions. “This goes to the heart of democracy in California,” he said.
But in an email, a spokeswoman for Becerra said that the attorney general takes the responsibility “seriously.”
“Under California law, it is our job to issue official titles and summaries describing the chief purpose and points of every proposed initiative submitted in compliance with procedural requirements,” she wrote.
This story was originally published July 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM.