An initiative on the Nov. 3 statewide ballot presents the first attempt in five decades to modify Proposition 13’s all-but-sacred limits on property taxes. This week, we delve into Proposition 15. By requiring that commercial properties be reassessed every three years, it could generate as much as $11 billion per year, with 40% going to K-12 schools and community colleges. It wouldn’t touch restrictions on residential properties.
We focus on two highly disputed issues: Is Prop. 15 a smart way to raise education funding ? Would it harm small businesses? UC Berkeley Professor Jesse Rothstein from the Yes on 15 campaign and former Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles from the No on 15 clearly disagree on the answers.
Also: The traumatic effects on children of the wildfires savaging California will linger for months and years after the flames are out. EdSource reporter Carolyn Jones discusses what we can learn from the past experiences of devastating fires in Butte and Sonoma counties.
For background to this podcast, check out the following:
- Quick Guide: Proposition 15, the proposed ’split-roll’ tax on commercial property
- How Prop. 15 would increase K-12 districts’ funding
- Even when the smoke clears, schools find student trauma can linger
- Gov. Newsom vetoes requirement for ethnic studies course in high school
- Also vetoed: A fix to the funding formula
- Gov. Newsom’s veto message for AB 1835, on Local Control Funding Formula reform
- Gov. Newsom’s veto message for AB 331, on ethnic studies