A coalition of businss and taxpayers groups that includes the Orange County Business Council is taking the offensive to head off any effort to tax California’s commercial property differently than residential.

Since Proposition 13 passed in 1978, residential and commercial property have been taxed at the same rate, 1% of the purchase price with a maximum 2% increase a year. The property is not reassessed at fair market value until it is sold.

Under a split roll, taxes on commercial property — office buildings, shopping centers, apartments — would be treated differently. It can be done different ways. Commercial property could be reassessed more often based on fair market value or taxed at a higher rate than residential. Any change in how commercial property is taxed requires a statewide vote.

Efforts to allow the so-called “split roll” tend to come up whenever the state faces fiscal problems. At least eight bills dealing with a split roll have been introduced since 1991. None ever reached the governor.

In February, Assemblyman Mike Davis, D-Los Angeles, introduced AB 2461 asking the Board of Equalization to study how much revenue would have been generated during the previous fiscal year if nonresidential commercial property had been reassessed at its fair market value the prior fiscal year. Nothing more has happened on the bill since April when its first hearing in the Assembly Revenue and Taxation was canceled.

With the legislature casting about for revenues to bridge a $15 billion budget deficit, the business community wants to start early getting the word out about its opposition to a split roll.

The group is operating under the auspices of Californians Against Higher Property Taxes. In addition to OCBC, members include the California Chamber of Commerce, California Restaurant Association, California Taxpayers’ Association, California Business Properties Association, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, California Business Roundtable, National Federation of Independent Business-California and California Retailers Association.

Here’s the California Chamber’s press release. So is it time to change Proposition 13?

Other property tax stories…

• Property tax breaks won’t last forever
• Aliso Viejo is top city for property tax cuts
  
• O.C. to cut property taxes for 116,000
• How to lower your property taxes
• Formal appeals start July 2
• Key dates of property assessments

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Commercial property, Polls, Real estate taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.