Resolution: Close the Commercial Property Loophole

The Green Party of California General Assembly approved the following resolution on Saturday, January 24, 2015:

WHEREAS, Proposition 13, passed in 1978, is unfair in that it allows commercial property owners to avoid paying their fair share and has shifted the tax burden to residential property and away from business, including everyday homeowners and working families; and
 
WHEREAS, the state of California continues to face chronic budget crises in in large part because Proposition 13 has forced the state to rely on more volatile revenue sources than the property tax, like income taxes and sales taxes paid by working families that move in tandem with economic cycles, causing deficits and requiring cuts to vital services that grow our economy and thereby worsening economic downturns;
 
WHEREAS regularly reassessing non-residential property would, according to an analysis of data provided by the California Board of Equalization, generate at least $6 billion in additional revenue for California, and shift the tax burden from homeowners, renters, and working families to corporations and commercial landholders;
 
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Green Party of California supports commercial property tax reform that will require commercial properties to be reassessed regularly while maintaining residential property owners’ protections under existing state property tax law (California Constitution Article 13-A); to enact a split roll, and to repeal of the parts of existing state property tax law (California Constitution Article 13-A) that require a two-thirds vote for any tax increase at the state level, and replace them with majority vote.
 
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Green Party of California will communicate this position to Green elected officials and to the general public.  
 

For more, read the Green Party's Fair Taxation platform plank

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