California retailers must stop ‘largest tax increase’
By Dug Clark, Manager and Government Relations Staff Member
The impact of Proposition 15 on the California ballot is clear to Howard Haimsohn. “It’s a tax increase aimed right at small businesses,” the owner of Home Furnishings Association member Lawrance Furniture in San Diego said.
If approved by voters in November, the measure would change how commercial and industrial property is taxed. Now, property tax is based on purchase price plus the rate of inflation or 2 percent each year, whichever is less. Prop 15 would instead tax property on its current market value, adjusted every three years.
What’s the difference? The new calculation would generate as much as $11 billion a year in additional state revenue.
CRA President and CEO Rachel Michelin: ‘The impact on small business is huge’
“This would be the largest tax increase in California history,” Rachel Michelin, president and CEO of the California Retailers Association, told the HFA. “The impact on small business is huge. If you do business in California, it will affect you.”
California’s economy has been deeply hurt by the virus and restrictions on business activity, Michelin said. “How do we recover from this together? This tax will be detrimental to that recovery,” she said.
