Taxpayer Red Alert: NO on SCA 2 - Protect parent-child transfers from huge tax hikes

Your help is needed immediately to stop a dangerous proposal from advancing in the State Senate and in the State Assembly this week.

Senate Constitutional Amendment 2 (SCA 2) has been misleadingly named, “The Home Protection for Seniors, Severely Disabled, Families, and Victims of Wildfire or Natural Disasters Act.”

If the name was truthful it would be called the “Repeals Prop. 58 and Raises Taxes on Property Transferred Between Parents And Children Act.”

Proposition 58 was approved by voters in 1986 with 75.7% of the vote. It provided for certain property transferred between parents and children to be excluded from reassessment. This allowed parents and children to transfer ownership of a home and up to $1 million of assessed value of other property, such as a business, rental home or small apartment building, without an increase in property taxes.

SCA 2 WOULD ABOLISH PROPOSITION 58. All property transferred between parents and children would be reassessed to market value, with the sole exception of a home that becomes the principal residence of the person to whom it is transferred. And even that exclusion is capped. In many areas of California, typical family homes are already above the cap in value.

SCA 2 WOULD ABOLISH PROPOSITION 193. Property transferred between grandparents and grandchildren is similarly protected from reassessment if the children’s parents are deceased. SCA 2 would repeal this important protection for families that have suffered a loss.

This proposed constitutional amendment is similar to an initiative backed by the California Association of Realtors, which has already qualified for the ballot. The Realtors want to substitute this version, which has new provisions added to gain more support from special interests.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has reviewed the initiative and projects that 40,000 to 60,000 families per year will pay higher property taxes under these new rules, eventually totaling as much as $2 billion in tax increases on California families.

SCA 2 MUST BE STOPPED. It is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee on Tuesday (June 23). It may also be heard in the Assembly as early as Wednesday, possibly Thursday. (The identical proposal is also known as ACA 11 in the Assembly.)

CALL YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVES. You can find their names and contact information by going online to http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov, or use these links to see a complete list of state senators and Assembly members:

https://www.senate.ca.gov/senators

https://www.assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers

SCA 2 is moving so fast that some lawmakers may not even be aware of it. Let them know about this serious threat to California families. Protect the parent-child transfer. Protect the grandparent-grandchild transfer. Save Propositions 58 and 193. VOTE NO ON SCA 2 (and ACA 11). 

Please call NOW!

Thank you for standing up for taxpayers and for California families.

With urgent thanks,

Jon