Officials charged with administering Prop 15 say its “impossible” to implement
SACRAMENTO – Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone and San Bernardino County Assessor Bob Dutton coauthored an opinion piece published in the Sunday edition of the San Jose Mercury News and the East Bay Times, and later in all eleven of the Southern California News Group newspapers, which warns of an administrative nightmare unless California voters reject Prop 15. The assessors are from opposing political parties but agree that the split-roll measure will not fulfill its promises and be impossible to implement.
Read excerpts from “Costly split-roll initiative won’t deliver promised revenues“ below:
“However, when an initiative threatens the stability of our entire property tax system, we are compelled to speak out. We have joined the California Assessors’ Association in opposing the split-roll initiative on the Nov. 3 statewide ballot…
As a Democrat and Republican, we do not always agree on politics, but we strongly agree that this ballot initiative, as written, simply cannot be implemented by Jan. 1, 2022…
We have joined other assessors in concluding that the split-roll initiative, as written, would not be just challenging to implement, it would be impossible…
If initiative proponents seek to generate tax revenue to immediately “plug” local government budget shortfalls due to COVID-19, this measure would not do it. Nor should schools count on new revenue in 2022 for their budgets…
The proposition would not generate a net increase in revenue for many years, if at all, not months as promised. Meanwhile, it would create administrative chaos for property tax administrators…
An independent and impartial analysis prepared for the California Assessors’ Association concluded the implementation cost would reach $1 billion during the first three years, with no guarantee it would generate a fraction of the promised $12.5 billion in annual new property tax revenue…
In November, we hope voters seriously consider the costs and administrative challenges of the split-roll ballot measure and join us in voting no.”
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