Reform Prop 13

By Hiba Khurshid, San Francisco | 10/9/15

Regarding “Governor says he won’t do battle over Prop. 13 again” (SF Gate, Oct. 7): Gov. Jerry Brown’s statement about how he won’t support Prop. 13 reform is a loss for California’s already underfunded schools and public services. It isn’t as complex as Brown makes it out to be. The split-roll initiative would force corporations to pay market value property taxes and bring back much-needed funds to schools. Every other place in the country already reassesses commercial property regularly, and by implementing split roll, we would be on par with the rest of the country. And nothing will change for homeowners, renters, landlords and agricultural landowners. California has the eighth largest economy in the world, and you would think that the state could fund schools with that kind of money. But the reality is that schools are heavily underfunded. This problem has a simple solution: Reform Prop. 13 and bring back $9 billion dollars to increase the education budget in California. More than 700 elected officials from more than 100 school boards, city councils and county boards of supervisors have already publicly called for reform and a majority of Californians agree. Now all we have to do is get our political leaders to agree to lend their voices and support to this reform.