Commentary: Property tax split would drive business from state

As the California Legislature adjourned for the year this past week, ominous clouds began to appear on the horizon, casting a shadow over the fiscal future of our state.

Los Angeles joined San Francisco and more than 80 cities and school districts to formally call on the state to enact a “split-roll” property tax increase. This is part of a well-funded effort to set the stage for an assault on Proposition 13 in 2016.

Taxing commercial property at a higher rate than residential property would result in a $6 billion tax increase, and it would have a devastating effect on California business and jobs. Pepperdine University estimates the split-roll would result in the loss of more than 300,000 California jobs the first year and more than 100,000 jobs each year thereafter.

Main Street businesses throughout our state would go out of business as rents rise, and major manufacturing facilities, which have already endured high income taxes and onerous regulations, would leave California as the last financial incentive keeping them here, Proposition 13 property tax protection, is lost. The impact would be disastrous for our state.

The second ominous sign was the appearance in Sacramento of Democratic hedge fund manager and super-contributor Tom Steyer. Steyer was making it clear that he had $1 million in contributions for those legislators willing to support an oil excise tax. (Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg actually adjourned the Senate for 90 minutes so Democrats could meet privately with Steyer.)

This double tax on oil would drive up the cost of gasoline for all Californians. We already pay the highest gasoline tax in the nation. Striking a crippling blow to the state’s energy industry is exactly the aim of Steyer and his allies. This tax would cripple us at the very time we stand on the edge of energy independence.

The California Business Roundtable has already identified the third element of the 2016 assault on taxpayers, an effort to permanently extend the Proposition 30 income tax rates, which are due to expire. California has the highest income tax rates in the nation. This move would lock us into a downward economic spiral for generations, and more and more businesses, jobs and educated college graduates would leave California for a better economic future.

While crippling our state, these three tax increases would lead to an expansion of government spending in Sacramento not seen since former Gov. Gray Davis was in office.

These are the stakes for the future of our state, and to a great extent the first battle over these issues will be fought in 2014. We must break the super-majority in Sacramento. I am privileged to be part of the Trailblazer Program with other candidates who are key to breaking the Democrats’ hold on the Assembly, including Young Kim in Assembly District 65, David Hadley in district 66, Marc Steinorth in district 40 and Tom Lackey in district 36, along with Janet Nguyen in Senate District 34.

This year we must elect candidates who can broaden our message, raise the funding necessary to compete throughout the state and wage an intellectually credible opposition to massive tax hikes. As the Republican candidates, we bring business experience, real-life knowledge of the effect of state taxes and regulations and a commitment to focusing on issues critical to our state economy.

The stakes are high. We cannot afford candidates who lack business know-how or who are focused not on taxes but on side-show issues like changing the spelling of street names. It’s time for adults in Sacramento.

Newport Beach City Councilman KEITH CURRY is a candidate for the 74th Assembly District, which includes sections of Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and Newport.