California Retailers Association President and CEO participated in a virtual assessment of Prop. 15, hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California. The following are excerpts from the discussion.
“Proposition 15 is a significant tax hike on all Californians, increasing costs for their everyday consumer needs. CA leads the nation in poverty and unemployment rates. Businesses are leaving the state. Thousands have closed or will close and a majority are not coming back. Our economy will only recover by supporting business of all sizes, especially smaller business owners who have maxed out their credit cards and dipped into their 401ks to survive during this pandemic. Voters should carefully read all of the details of this initiative and make an educated decision in November. CRA urges voters to vote No On Prop 15.”
“Proposition 15’s definition of small business is very narrow. Most small businesses rent their store space- they do not own. If, for example, a strip mall falls under the Prop. 15 $3 million + commercial market value threshold, the rent for store space will increase under Prop. 15’s required reassessment. Businesses will be forced to then increase the cost of their consumer products and goods. This will disproportionally impact women and minority-owned businesses.”
“I have two children in public school, spent years touring schools, talking to school board members- the CA Teachers Association talks about big bad corporations, but it is these businesses that give back millions to their communities including schools.”
“Proposition 15 will not help housing. It will further hamper our economic recovery which needs to be fixed first. Taxing businesses and consumers is not the way our state recovers from COVID-19.”
“California’s historic and popular Proposition 13 provides critical protections for Californians, especially seniors like my parents. It is already very expensive to live here. Proposition 15 will chip away at these protections, starting with taxing commercial property. Residential will be next.”
“Proposition 15 will add a new layer of bureaucracy to county government making it difficult to enforce and increasing costs at a time when local government budgets and resources are already severely constrained. That’s why county assessors oppose this initiative.”
“Proposition 15 does not just target big business. It will have a drastic impact on our farmers as well. Prop. 15 will tax every aspect of California’s agriculture industry from farm to fork. It will tax our nuts, almonds, grapes, effect our restaurants, groceries and entire food supply chain. The devil is in the details. voters should read the entire initiative before voting.”
“The funding generated by Prop. 15 taxes will not go directly to schools. The initiative states that the money will in stead go to the state legislature and Governor rather than directly to our classrooms. If we really want to fund education, we need to have a real discussion- not this initiative, which will give our classrooms sloppy seconds in funding AFTER the state and counties. Los Angeles and San Francisco will get most of the money that eventually trickles down, which is why rural opposed this measure.”
“California’s state legislature had the opportunity to close the tax loophole that Prop. 15 proponents keep referencing- on THREE separate occasions. We do not need a citizen’s initiative to close the loophole, which was in fact created by our state legislature- not by Prop. 13 as proponents like to claim. The business community has supported closing the loophole legislatively, which special interest groups, including the California Teachers Association, have opposed.”
