With the LA Chamber of Commerce leading the opposition – arguing that the revenue surge wouldn’t make it to the intended classroom cause — and the California Business Roundtable and real estate interests supplying funding for the “no” side. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association lobbed in a legal challenge. The two sides have raised more than $7 million.
And that gets us to a looming state ballot fight. Similar battle lines are forming behind the split-roll initiative to lift Prop 13’s commercial property tax limits, with UTLA backing the measure as a school funding savior and business groups revving up for heavy opposition. Of course, a local parcel tax is not the same — functionally or politically — as a statewide effort to undercut Prop 13. But to the extent they both test the electorate’s appetite for increasing taxes to fund schools, the vote today could signal what lies ahead.
View Article