Proposed CA Constitutional Amendments Ahead
Mark Fernwood
By Mark Fernwood, a LRWF member and a member of the GOP Central Committee
“The Taxpayer Protection and Accountability Act,” which polling strongly favors. This measure would ensure:
Regulatory agencies could not impose new regulations unless approved by the Legislature.
Taxes imposed by “special interest groups” would also requite a 2/3 vote not just over 50%.
Any “fee” could not be imposed without a 2/3 vote. Also, the “fee” must directly fund the “service” it is claimed to finance.
“Fees” such as new, “real estate transfer taxes,” also would require 2/3 voter approval
Constitutional Amendment 4, SCA 4, ”Repeal the Death Tax”
* Will restore the ability to allow certain intergenerational transfers without property
tax reassessment. SCA 4 would allow voters to reinstate prop 58 and Prop 193,
which Prop 19 took away.
SCA 4 would reinstate the exclusion from reassessment when the parents’ primary residence of any value is transferred to their children or grandparents to their grandchildren, when the owners have passed away.
SCA 4 would restore a similar exclusion from reassessment of a transfer of other real property with an assessed value of up to $1 Million dollars, e.g., a rental or vacation home. When prop 19 passed it did not explain fully the impact of Prop 19 limiting intergenerational transfers of the primary residence and eliminating the parent child exclusion of intergenerational transfers of other property.
These recommendations are from both the Contra Costa Taxpayers Assoc. (CoCoTax.org) and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assoc. (HJTA.org)