Hold onto your wallets, commercial property owners.
Picking up steam is a movement to split off business properties from Proposition 13 protection known as splitting the tax rolls. Such a move would raise property taxes on commercial buildings by at least $1 billion statewide. Understandably, business groups are vehemently opposed, realizing that corporate landowners and company-owned facilities would take big tax hits.
Splitting the tax rolls has come up repeatedly through the years, but it has usually been proposed by liberal Democrats and has been quickly quashed by Republican governors and legislators and more moderate Democrats.
But in recent weeks, conservative Republicans and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association longtime opponents of splitting the tax rolls have softened their opposition and are poised to join liberal Democrats in support of a split roll. And one Republican legislator, Assemblyman Bill Leonard of Rancho Cucamonga, is considering introducing a bill that would split the rolls.
In part, the change of heart by traditional opponents is seen as payback for business groups’ support for Proposition 39, the measure on the November ballot that reduced the voter approval threshold for school bonds. That measure passed by a 53 percent to 47 percent margin. In addition, the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups supported several moderate Democratic candidates in the November election.
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President Jon Coupal was recently quoted as saying that the association is not ruling out a switch from its longtime opposition to actually supporting a split roll.
After all, Coupal pointed out, why should the association not consider rectifying any inequities in the property tax system just to protect big business, especially when big business supported higher taxes with its backing of Prop. 39?
For his part, though, Leonard said he is not motivated by payback. Leonard was initially elected to the Legislature on the wave of homeowner outrage over rising property taxes back in 1978 and was on the legislative committee that wrote the laws implementing Proposition 13. In the early 1990s under then-Gov. Pete Wilson, he earned a reputation as the “go-to” Republican legislator for business groups seeking legislation.
Now, though, Leonard says he is concerned that the state Board of Equalization has found that commercial property owners have been paying a declining share of the state’s overall property tax, while residential property owners are paying an increasing share.
Green Party Mayor
Santa Monica City Councilman Michael Feinstein last week became the first Green Party mayor of a city in L.A. County and one of the highest-ranking Green Party elected officials in the United States. The four-year city councilman, who is actually one of two Green Party members on the seven-member council, was chosen unanimously by his peers on Dec. 12.
Green Party members, with their environmental and social activist agenda, traditionally have not been best friends to business. But surprisingly, leading members of Santa Monica’s business community are not up in arms over Feinstein’s selection as mayor.
It seems that business leaders have been so at odds with the City Council over the past two years that they feel it can’t get a whole lot worse. All one has to do is look at the deep divisions caused by the proposed coastal zone living wage law and the business-backed counter-initiative that was defeated on the November ballot.
Also, the Chamber of Commerce actually filed suit against the city a couple months back over its proposal to grant preferential parking to residents in areas immediately adjacent to businesses.
Even though Feinstein is a Green Party member, business leaders say that they have found him to be approachable and that he actually listens to their concerns.
“He has good people skills,” said Chris Harding, a partner in the firm of Harding, Larmore, Kutcher & Kozal, which is representing the chamber in its lawsuit against the city. “People in the business community are cautiously optimistic that things will get better under Feinstein.”
Will the honeymoon last?
The first real test is going to come in the next couple months as the city and chamber try to reach a compromise on the preferential parking issue. And if that’s not enough, there’s the coastal zone living wage proposal, which should come to the council sometime later next year.
LAX Expansion EIR Due Out
After months of delays, Los Angeles World Airports has finally announced that Jan. 18 will be the release date for the environmental impact report for the massive Los Angeles International Airport expansion project.
The EIR promises to be among the most massive ever released for a single project. It will contain some 12,000 pages in 11 volumes. Even the Executive Summary will comprise an entire volume and be several hundred pages long.
“Of course, we don’t expect anybody to actually read the entire EIR from cover to cover,” said LAWA spokesman Bob Rawitch.
Indeed, Rawitch said, there only will be a few copies printed of the entire 11-volume set; those will go to certain public agencies and will be available at local public libraries. And, maybe that’s a good thing: it’s costing $400,000 just to print and distribute those completed copies.
Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached via e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at (323) 549-5225, ext. 227.
