I tried to stay out of this debate about Proposition 15. However, after reading the letter from Lesley Tay-Chung in the Oct. 17 edition of the Daily Journal; I could not. Ms. Chung may be well intended, as are many others who share her sentiments. We all want more funds to go to the schools to help better educate our children. But the reality is, when you raise the property taxes of the commercial real estate … all you are in effect doing is raising the rent paid by the tenants (mostly small businesses), which will then raise the prices you individually will have to pay for their respective services and goods.
It all sounds utopian when you state that the “wealthy landowners” will then pay for the bulk of the education costs each year if Proposition 15 passes. But again, it will not come out of the landowners’ pocket. It will come directly from the small business and the individual community members themselves. What you and others who think like you don’t understand is that many businesses pay their rent plus their commercial landowner’s portion of the property tax and property insurance as well. If Proposition 15 passes, not only will all of us have to pay more for services and goods … but we will also be putting a lot of privately owned small businesses out of business.
The money needs to come from another source. Look at the improper misallocation of funds from the lottery. Clean that up first before passing an ill-conceived Proposition 15.
Well written, Mr. Soss. Vote No on 15 and any other Proposition taking your hard-earned money to pay for government pensions and benefits. According to Ballotpedia, the revenue would first be distributed to (a) the state to supplement decreases in revenue from the state's personal income tax and corporation tax due to increased tax deductions and (b) counties to cover the costs of implementing the measure. Second, 60 percent of the remaining funds would be distributed to local governments and special districts, and 40 percent would be distributed to school districts and community colleges. So basically, there may be no money spent “for the kids” depending upon creative accounting.
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Well written, Mr. Soss. Vote No on 15 and any other Proposition taking your hard-earned money to pay for government pensions and benefits. According to Ballotpedia, the revenue would first be distributed to (a) the state to supplement decreases in revenue from the state's personal income tax and corporation tax due to increased tax deductions and (b) counties to cover the costs of implementing the measure. Second, 60 percent of the remaining funds would be distributed to local governments and special districts, and 40 percent would be distributed to school districts and community colleges. So basically, there may be no money spent “for the kids” depending upon creative accounting.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.