Initiative would tax businesses to pay for preschool

[achtungbaby]

By Ed Fletcher -- Bee Capitol Bureau

Published 2:15 a.m. PST Thursday, October 30, 2003
Hoping to speed California toward the goal of universal preschool, the state's largest teachers union and movie director Rob Reiner plan to ask voters next year to increase education spending by hiking commercial property taxes by 55 percent.

The proposed initiative, announced Wednesday, would increase the tax rate on commercial property to 1.55 percent from the current 1 percent rate. The tax increase would raise an additional $3 billion annually for K-12 education and $1.5 billion for preschool education, proponents said. The new funds would be in addition to what the state is required to spend on education under Proposition 98.

Business and anti-tax groups quickly branded the plan an "all-out attack on Proposition 13," which for 25 years has limited property taxes to 1 percent of assessed value.

But the powerful California Teachers Association said the state must get serious about education. California ranks 29th among the 50 states in per-pupil spending, according to statistics cited in a publication of the California Taxpayers Association.

"If we want to have a top-rate state ... then we need to have a world-class education system, and we need to pay for it," said Barbara Kerr, association president.

Supporters said they are ironing out the language for the ballot measure and plan to submit the proposed initiative to the California secretary of state's office in the next two weeks.

full story (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/ca/story/7694228p-8633956c.html)

[amietron]

I went to a private preschool. Isn't how they all are?

[ChinaLama]

if property taxes are only 1% of property values, how do Californian localities get their $? Do you guys have a high sales tax or an income tax?

[kimpossible]

Housing prices are extremely high there, CL. Sales and income taxes aren't exactly low either.

[John0101]

In Mass, property taxes also pay for a lot of public schools. Obviously richer neighborhoods get more money then inner-city schools (less prop. ownership, low property value, $/people, etc).

IMO there should be more government spending on education (I wrote a paper on this, ask me if u want to read it), and there should also be redistrubition of money from upper-class neighborhoods to poorer neighborhoods.

This tax bill isn't going to affect the upper class alot, 1% to 1.55% aint going to change their usable income by a whole lot. Poorer or working class family's might find it harder to hold on to their homes with the increase in tax. Also if you have a home valued at $1mil thats $15500 a year that goes to the rich neigborhood school system. But in a poorer neighborhood where home might be valued at $100k thats only $1550 that goes into that school system.

I don't know the tax rate in my neighborhood, but property value in my hometown is pretty expensive and inflated IMO. My town is a large town 50k+ residents w/ many type of housings, houses, apartments, condos, projects, townhouses. I was looking at www.isoldmyhouse.com and found a 2br 1 bathroom condo going for 400k.