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Saturday, February 20, 2010

Ammiano calls for 'homeowner-exempt' revision of prop 13 to mitigate budget deficit | California Progress Report

Ammiano calls for 'homeowner-exempt' revision of prop 13 to mitigate budget deficit | California Progress Report


Following the surprising reception for his 'pot initiative' last year, Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) begins his sophomore year in Sacramento by taking another bold political step as he introduces a split roll property tax reform measure that would significantly alter Prop 13, long considered California’s political third rail.
Ammiano’s measure would call for taxing and assessing commercial property differently from residential property, which would remain unchanged.
The measure would effectively exempt California homeowners from the revision Ammiano claims is necessary to correct an unintended consequence of Prop 13 - a growing tax burden onto residential property owners and increasingly away from "corporate landowners" and commercial property.
The second year progressive Assemblymember is calling for a split roll to reverse "what has been a shift in California 's property tax burden to homeowners from business owners" under Proposition 13 caused by the different assessment of taxes for commercial and industrial property from residential property, according to Ammiano's press release.
“For over thirty years, Proposition 13 has allowed corporate landowners to benefit from tax loopholes while shifting the real tax burden to individual homeowners and reducing