Democrats to jack up business taxes

The Marxists Want More Taxes

• To Democrat Socialists there will never ever be enough money to satisfy the "needs" of different voter blocks.  The question of the day is do Republicans have any back bone at all to stand up against the endless calls to re-distribute the wealth?

(Reading Record Searchlight)  -  California businesses would pay billions more in property taxes under a longshot bid by two Democratic lawmakers to unravel some of the voter-approved tax limits in Proposition 13.

A coalition of unions and liberal groups joined state senators Wednesday to support a constitutional amendment that would roll back property tax limits on some companies and real estate owners.

Voters approved Proposition 13 in 1978 to curb the rise of property taxes on homes and other real estate. The proposed amendment, SCA5, would require commercial and industrial properties to be taxed at regularly assessed values, not just values assessed when buildings and land change ownership. Some businesses are able to avoid property tax increases through corporate restructuring.

"We have large corporations and property investors that have used loopholes in the law to avoid paying their fair share," Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, said at a news conference with her co-author, Sen. Lori Hancock, D-Berkeley.

The senators estimated their measure would raise billions of dollars annually for education and other public services. Business groups counter that the proposed overhaul would add to an already high tax burden and hinder economic growth.

"California, even with Prop 13, is a high property tax state," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which is named for the champion of Proposition 13. "There's no compelling reason given the tax revenues that are now flowing into the state."

Any effort to change the landmark property tax reform faces tough odds. It has long been considered untouchable in California politics and has never been changed.

SCA5 requires support from two-thirds of the Assembly and the Senate, including Republicans and moderate Democrats who are averse to changing property tax rules. It would then go before voters.

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Telling the Marxists to shove it

Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann were the most vocal and visible advocates of Proposition 13. Officially named the "People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation," and known popularly as the "Jarvis-Gann Amendment," Proposition 13 was listed on the ballot through the California ballot initiative process.

By Proposition 13, the annual real estate tax on a parcel of property is limited to 1% of its assessed value. This "assessed value," may be increased only by a maximum of 2% per year, until and unless the property has a change of ownership.