Democrats now have supermajorities in both the California State Senate and Assembly, and this means that some long overdue changes to the state tax code with regard to corporate property are soon on their way. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano looks to be the one who will be proposing a bill to redefine the way property gets reassessed for corporations because of a loophole that has gone unfixed since Prop 13 went into effect in 1978, corporations have been able to avoid reassessment of their property, and any corporate property that's been around since 1978 is still being taxed at its 1978 value.
Back in 2009, San Francisco Assessor Phil Ting ran on a platform that called out this issue, and many lawmakers have talked about this over the years, but the political will to change Prop 13 which has served as a major protection for homeowners, especially long-term, elderly homeowners hasn't been there.
The loophole had to do with the way the law was written with regard to the "transfer" of property. As Willie Brown admits in his Sunday column, he was in the Assembly in 1978 and partly responsible for this boo-boo. It turns out corporations tend to only transfer stock in properties when they're sold, and thereby they've been able to skirt reassessments for transfers of property. This is obviously something someone should have fixed decades ago, but now it's up to the Democrats to do it without ruffling too many big-money feathers.
Brown uses the column to voice his own criticism or lack of confidence in Ammiano, saying that a tax-happy politician like him isn't the man for the job of sponsoring this delicate bill. "If I were in charge, I'd come up with a bill redefining that single word, 'transfer.' And I wouldn't have Ammiano ... carry the bill -- I'd pick the most conservative Democrat I could find and have him do the job."
In related news, Mark Leno wants to sponsor a constitutional amendment on next year's ballot changing a different part of Prop 13 that requires a supermajority to vote for new local parcel taxes for education. He wants to lower the vote required on new education taxes to 55%.
