“California tax addicts set sights on property,” is how the San Diego Union Tribune editorial board headlines is editorial excoriating SB 1021 (Wolk; D-Davis) which is currently being considered by the California State Senate. Click here to read the full editorial.
SB 1021 would authorize more than 1,000 California school districts to impose unlimited tax increases on select property owners by allowing the imposition of nonuniform parcel taxes, further complicating an already complex tax regime.
Under the bill, school districts could split parcel tax assessments within a district based on one or more of the following rates: a flat amount, the square footage of a parcel, the square footage of improvements on a parcel, or according to the property’s classification — commercial, industrial, single-family residential or multifamily residential — so long as the same tax rate is levied on all properties within the same classification.
The bill also would allow school districts to impose a different tax rate on unimproved parcels; and to treat multiple parcels as one — for purposes of a parcel tax — where the parcels are contiguous, under common ownership, and constitute one economic unit (they must have “the same primary purpose and are not separate and distinct properties that may be independently developed and sold”).
We are flat-out opposed to this measure and are working with a large coalition to try to defeat it in the Legislature.
