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Contra Costa Taxpayers Association

VICE president's report

 Initiatives, Senate & Assembly Constitutional Amendments,

and Petitions out for Signature

Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1, ACA 1, the “affordable housing and infrastructure exception” to Prop 13 lowers voter approval threshold from two thirds (2/3’s) requirement to 55% for passage for affordable housing and infrastructure. imposing or increasing sales, use taxes and parcel taxes for construction of public infrastructure or affordable housing including  pothole repair, roads, bicycle paths, rapid transit, High Speed Rail, parks and trails, beaches and parking lots, electrical grids, wind turbines, solar panels, low-income housing, buildings, schools, power plants,  sidewalks, pipes, gateways, poles, pipes, conveyances, transmission lines, transportation, communication systems, electricity, heat, power, and a multitude of projects lumped under “infrastructure.  The measure includes parcel taxes and Bond Indebtedness for these projects. 

Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act. (21-0042A1.) This act closes loopholes by initiatives and locally by agencies and committees 1) requiring a 2/3rds voting requirement for all special taxes; 2) requiring that new or increased general tax measures not specify how the revenues will be spent and requiring a two-thirds vote of Legislature and a voter majority vote.  The Act defines exempt fees and requires that they have to be usage based and directly related to the service provided and based on actual costs which must be reasonable thus limiting ability of state, cities, counties and Local Special Districts to raise fees without the Legislative body’s accountability for usage or treating it as a tax.   (A lawsuit has been filed by the Governor and Legislature to prevent this initiative from being placed on the ballot.)

Assembly Constitutional Amendment 3, ACA 3, “current Market Value” would replace Assessed Value for determining property taxes and would gut Prop 13.  ACA 3 would allow the Legislature to raise taxes with a simple majority vote instead of with a 2/3rds vote established by Prop 13 and would allow the State legislature to redefine wealth to include unrealized capital gains in real estate. The difference between the purchase price and the current market value, “unrealized capital gains”, in the wealthiest tax brackets would be taxed. The measure is Initially limited to billionaires, but it could trickle down to lower tax brackets by a majority vote of the State’s Legislature.

ACA 13.  Voting Thresholds for Passage. This ballot measure will require that if any measure being voted on requires more than a majority vote for approval, then the ballot measure proposing the greater approval requirement must also receive that same higher approval requirement.   (Approval of this new measure would increase the approval requirement of the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act (TPA) that reinstates the Two Thirds vote for special taxes.)

SCA 2, Public Housing Projects. This ballot measure Repeals state law that prohibits the development, construction, and acquisition of low-rent housing projects until a majority of the qualified electors of the city, town or county which the low rent housing project is proposed approve the project by vote.

Expanding Local Government’s Authority to enact Rent Controls on Residential Housing (22-0008). This measure Repeals the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act of 1995 that that prevents cities and counties from limiting the initial rates that Landlords may charge to new tenants and from limiting rent increases.

Statewide Funding for Pandemic Detection/prevention increases personal income tax brackets over $5 million .0.75% for 10 years for revenues for California Institute of Pandemic prevention, for grants for research and development of technologies to prevent future pandemics and for public health preparedness, and for school improvements to limit transmission, raising $1.5 billion annually for 10 years. (High income taxpayers impacted)

Repeal the Death Tax SCA 4, (23-005) failed to garner the required signatures to be placed on the November ballot. 875,000 signatures were required. Only 650,000 signatures were collected and submitted.

How to Read Your Contra Costa Tax Bill

CCC_SecBill_How To Read_2020 v_202010301343484831.pdf

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