Commentary

By CalTax Chief Tax Consultant David R. Doerr Berkeley’s City Council recently voted to eliminate single-family zoning at the end of 2022, and other local governments may be tempted to follow suit as they look for ways to address California’s housing shortage. As the pros and cons are discussed, homeowners should be aware that zoning changes can trigger higher property taxes. Before delving into the details, a refresher on Proposition 13 might be useful. Under the 1978 property tax limitation…

By CalTax Policy and Communications Associate Dustin Weatherby Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, California had record-low unemployment of 3.5 percent in September 2019 and record reserves to weather an economic recession. The sudden economic shutdown on Friday the 13th of March 2020 led to millions of Californians waiting in unemployment call-center hotlines and a sharp tax revenue decrease for the state government. Unemployment peaked at 16.2 percent in April and improved only moderately to 11 percent in September, 3.1 percent…

By CalTax Policy and Communications Associate Dustin Weatherby Californians rejected 142 of 237 local tax and bond measures on the March ballot. Normally, this would suggest that voters are signaling that taxes are too high, giving pause to local leaders contemplating tax hikes this fall. However, everything has changed. With the COVID-19 global pandemic’s impact on business and employment, many local governments are contemplating higher taxes to address their fiscal challenges. Rather than enjoying the continued record economic expansion and…

By CalTax President Robert Gutierrez This commentary was published this week in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, Los Angeles Daily News, Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Torrance Daily Breeze and Whittier Daily News. Los Angeles County officials are doing what they always do when county-sponsored tax increases are on the ballot – using your tax dollars to campaign for the tax hike under the fiction that they are just trying to educate voters. The County Fire Department’s “impartial” slideshow on…

By CalTax Policy and Communications Associate Dustin Weatherby This column was published this week by the Los Angeles Daily News, Orange County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise. When Californians go to the polls in March, they will narrow the field of presidential candidates, decide a $15 billion school bond and face hundreds of local tax measures. There are 234 local tax and bond measures on the March ballot, a 169 percent increase compared to the 2016 presidential primary election. In the June 2016…