From: Andy Caldwell <andy@colabsbc.org>
To: Andy Caldwell <andy@colabsbc.org>
Sent: Thu, Jan 11, 2018 9:09 am
Subject: here are the DASTARDLY details of the move to remove Prop 13 protections from commercial property
Please spread the attachment and this message!!!
We CAN defeat this!!!
You have a captive audience…your EMPLOYEES!!!
Explain to them how devastating this will be!
This represents, at a minimum, at estimated $11 billion tax hike on business!!!
As we explained in today’s oped, this is the worst time ever (not that there is a good time) to implement this effort.
We would appreciate financial support for broadcasting weekly commentaries FOR FREE by Jon Coupal from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association as they will be the leaders in this fight.
Please support them at www.hjta.org and please send COLAB some extra support for our efforts to defeat this.
Here is the oped:
Retail Armageddon
Click Here to Read the PDF on Ballot proposal to Destroy Prop 13 Commercial Property
Here comes the perfect fire storm of ineptitude, greed and avarice to engulf our state. The components of the storm include the new federal limitation on the deductibility of state income and property taxes, the impact of the internet on brick and mortar businesses, and the move to create what is known as a split roll in reference to Proposition 13. Let’s take these one at a time.
The federal limitations on the deductibility of state income and property taxes is long overdue. Despite the fact that you and I will financially suffer from this tax reform measure doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right thing to do. For the fact of the matter is that a few high tax states, including California and New York, were having their cake and eating it too at the expense of the rest of the country. In essence, these two states have the highest tax rates in the country, but because we could deduct the same on our federal returns, most people figured it was a wash, despite the fact that the rest of the nation suffered financial losses by way of underwriting these deductions. Well, those days are over! California now has a choice. It can lower the state’s income and property tax rates or suffer the consequences of people moving out of state in order to keep more of what they earn.
There isn’t much need for me to spell out the details of the second phenomenon that is forcing change in our society having to do with the impact of internet commerce to brick and mortar businesses. You can take a walk down State Street, while carefully stepping over the homeless, and see for yourself. Of course, all the empty storefronts represent lost revenue in the form of sales taxes and, it won’t be long, before rents and property tax proceeds begin to suffer as a result of the devaluation of brick and mortar retail establishments.
Well, that brings us to point number three. Some incredibly stupid and greedy people are in the process of presenting a ballot measure that would eliminate Proposition 13 protections for commercial and retail properties. What that means is that all commercial and retail properties would be continually assessed at current market value instead of being taxed based upon the value of the property per the provisions of Prop. 13. This will be catastrophic to most property owners as the purpose of Prop. 13 was to protect property owners from the runaway costs of inflation over time.
So, what we have here is greedy people planning to raise taxes that will no longer be deductible on brick and mortar businesses that are already unable to compete with the internet. Stupid can’t be fixed in California, but stupid certainly can fool voters time and time again!
The combination of these forces will create the perfect Santa Barbara downtown death spiral. More businesses will close. Property values and tax proceeds will plummet. Squatters will increase. In other words, more of the same ad infinitum.
Andy Caldwell is the executive director of COLAB and the host of The Andy Caldwell Show weekdays from 3-5 pm on News Press Radio AM1290.