(If you're in LA, check out this event! - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Our grassroots campaign to close California’s corporate property tax loopholes and reform Prop. 13 is going strong and building incredible momentum.
We now have over 3,000 supporters from all over the state on our Facebook page, thousands of Californians have already signed our petition at www.ClosetheLoophole.com (please sign the petition if you haven’t already) and we (finally) launched our Close the Loophole Twitter page. Organizations and individuals from all over the state are lining up to join our effort.
Edit by Brian: More information on an LA event over the flip...
Over the weekend the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco fired back against me for asking them to pay the city transfer tax the law says they owe to the City and County of San Francisco.
The Archdiocese called my decision to ask them to pay transfer taxes shameful, and the spokesperson for the Archdiocese insinuated that my decision was based on the city’s budget deficit, the Churches position on Proposition 8, or even on political considerations.
Here’s news for you folks – if I was taking on one of the world’s oldest and most powerful institutions for “political considerations,” I am not a very calculating politician.
What I am is Assessor-Recorder of San Francisco with a sworn duty to treat everyone equally under the law. And the law in this case is clear, despite this recent press offensive which is designed to muddy the waters. (edit by Brian, see the flip...)
(I want to welcome SF Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting. In addition to being pretty good at his job, he's also an all-around good guy. Welcome to Calitics! - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
It’s time to acknowledge that the “Third Rail” culture in Sacramento has sent California seriously off track.
Most of us know that Proposition 13 – specifically the vast corporate tax loopholes it contains – is the cause for much of California’s fiscal mess. As the elected Assessor-Recorder in San Francisco, I have a vantage point that allows me to see the tremendous inequity in a law that makes many struggling homeowners pay disproportionately more in property taxes than corporations with downtown office buildings.
Many of our leaders in Sacramento privately acknowledge the flaws in Proposition 13. A small few are brave enough to step forward and call for reform.
But too many others say that this “Third Rail” of politics needs to remain untouched, so instead they offer half solutions and political smokescreen as a substitute for real reforms. Edit by Brian for space, see the flip...
