In a surprise move, the Lenny Goldberg, who represents the California Tax Reform Association, and has been pushing change of ownership bills in the Legislature for years, has pulled support from AB 2372. This action left only one side of the signators on the agreement noted above, sitting supporting Assemblymember Ammiano in committee.
This development left many in the Capitol scratching their heads and wondering what was really going on. Goldberg sent a letter to Mr. Ammiano stating his opposition and advocating that the bill should be changed to apply retroactively. Applying the bill to past transactions was not part of the original agreement and is not an acceptable change.
Immediately after the original hearing where the deal was announced, our very own Rex Hime predicted that the unlikely coalition of supporters would stick together “unless one side or the other gets greedy.”
According to the Sacramento Bee “Goldberg’s pullback drives a wedge between him and Ammiano, who has also been a long-standing champion of changing tax assessments on business property.”
We will continue to support this measure and uphold our side of the agreement. We do believe reform makes sense and tightens the law in a manner that addresses abuses in change of ownership as the former proponents of the measure have stated they wanted to fix.
Click here for a fascinating report on the drama.
