Californians are getting sucker punched by Proposition 15, a statewide ballot initiative on the November ballot. Appropriate for the Halloween season and ongoing pandemic, it comes to us masked as one of those “feel good” initiatives based on claims it’s just about “increasing funding sources for public schools.”
In fact, there are no guarantees that any of the new revenues raised will ever trickle down “for the children” in a classroom. Most likely, the new taxes will travel through a confusing labyrinth of line items set up to benefit bureaucrats and their pensions and perks before any tax dollars ever end up in classrooms.
As a life-long educator, voters shouldn’t fall for this sugar-coated poison pill — especially at a time when Gov. Gavin Newsom continues to strangle our economy by ordering shutdowns of businesses, schools, and churches with constantly changing arbitrary reopening metrics.
If passed, Prop. 15 will become the proverbial “camel’s nose under the tent” — chiseling away at Proposition 13 protections. It won’t be long before homeowner protections become the next target.
Prop. 15 will raise property taxes by $11.5 billion per year and force many small businesses —already struggling to survive under Gov. Newsom’s harsh shutdown orders — to permanently shutter, negatively impacting jobs, families and communities throughout the state.
By the way, these are the moms and dads of the kids Prop.15 proponents are so supposedly concerned about.
Small businesses drive innovation in California’s economy. Before COVID-19, immigrants started 42 percent of California businesses, according to Harvard Business School. Minority- and women-owned businesses are vital parts of the economy, with 25 percent of businesses owned by Latinos and 38 percent owned by women.
These businesses will face a significant rent hike because neighborhood restaurants, bakeries, nail salons and other mom and pop businesses frequently cannot afford to own their property, so they rent.
Under the most common lease agreements, they are responsible for paying their portion of property taxes. Prop. 15 will raise property taxes substantially on shopping centers and strip malls, office parks, farms and most other business properties. When that happens, small businesses will end up paying the bill.
During the first few months of the COVID-19 lockdowns, the number of Latino business owners declined by 32 percent during the pandemic’s early months, and women-owned businesses fell by 25 percent, according to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. With the surviving businesses struggling to pay rent now, how will they afford a rent increase under Prop. 15?
Prop. 15 proponents are trying to bypass discussion of the overall economic impacts by focusing on more funding for schools. To start with, their campaign committee’s name – Schools and Communities First – is deceiving — a creation of focus groups finding that voters are more likely to support tax increases when “it’s for the kids.”
Yet, there’s no guarantee that the monies raised by this tax increase would even go into the classroom. Prop. 15, quite simply, is just another blank check to the same broken system that — when it finally trickles down to the schools — finances pay raises and pensions first. In a moment of sanity, even the California School Boards Association has refused to endorse it.
Prop. 15 proponents wail that our schools are starving and passage will restore funding that was mercilessly eroded when Proposition 13 — the real target of this tax increase measure — was first passed.
Yet, California already invests almost half our entire state budget into those same schools — each year. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analysts’ Office (LAO) and recent state education budget figures, total education funding has grown dramatically since 1978 even with Proposition 13’s passage — increasing over $93 billion and representing all-time K-12 funding highs. Additionally, LAO data shows total K-12 revenues grew from $10,780 per average daily attendance in 2011-12 to $17,423 in the recently signed budget.
Despite increased funding, student reading and math progress remain stagnant—especially for poor and minority children. That’s no wonder when the funding follows the adults rather than the students in the system.
Quite frankly, if Prop. 15 were really about the kids the new revenue would be tied to reform metrics, including giving parents the right to choose the best schooling option for their kids. A measure concerned about our kids could have been written requiring that state education funding truly follows the child regardless of where they go to school — including parental choices for homeschooling, charter schools, and faith-based options.Rather, drafted by status quo special interests including the California Teachers Association, it was written to be dropped into the proverbial black hole of the ever expanding state budget with no discernible improvements in the lives of everyday Californians or their school-age children.
Thus far, polling shows the public is getting wise to this trickery. It’s time to vote No on Prop. 15. Do it for the kids.
Gloria Romero previously served as Democratic majority leader in the California Senate. You can follow her on Twitter: @GloriaJRomero.
https://goo.gl/hYDEHJ
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