Prop. 15, The California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act

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This election Californians will be voting on Proposition 15, which is geared to tax some commercial properties to help increase funding for schools and local government. Supporters say we at this point Proposition 15 has to pass in order to help our hurting schools. Those who oppose say this will only open doors to tax homeowners in the future.

If passed Prop. 15 would tax some commercial properties based on their current market value, instead of the price at which it was purchased. The funds raised from this change would fund K-12 schools, community colleges, and local governments.

"When we think about the pros of the initiative, our school and local communities desperately need more investments right now. Even before this crisis, California schools were 39th in the nation in per people funding. we had the most overcrowded classrooms in the entire country," said Alex Stack, Spokesperson, Yes on 15.

This proposition does not affect homeowners or renters and there are exemptions for small businesses. The only thing affected by this proposition are commercial properties worth more than $3 Million.

But ads against Prop. 15 say homeowners are next. Those in support of Proposition 15 say it will implement new tax cuts for small businesses and only 10% of the top corporations will be affected, generating 92% of the revenue, equaling $12 Billion dollars every year.

But for opponents of the proposition, they feel differently.

"This is the opposite of helping small businesses," said Michael Meade, Founder of Wilson-Meade Commercial Real Estate.

They say these property tax increases will negatively affect small businesses.

"At the end of the day raising property taxes on commercial properties will hurt small businesses. when we raise those property taxes it doesn’t hurt the building owner, it’s passed down to the tenant, the small business owner," explained Meade.

Proponents say it’s a long time coming and it fixes some issues that stem from Prop. 13 passed by Californians over 40 years ago.

"Prop. 13 was voted on in 1978 because a lot of folks saw increasing property taxes on their homes and what ended up happening was those protections for homeowners actually got extended to commercial industrial property corporations," explained Stack.

If passed, Prop. 15 will be implemented starting in 2022 and it will be phased in until 2025.