Last week, C.A.R.’s (California Association of Realtors) Board of Directors approved a motion to proceed on a parallel route for achieving its goals and ask the legislature to put the Property Tax Fairness Initiative on the ballot for March 2020. If that effort is successful, C.A.R. will not need to pursue the initiative for the November 2018 ballot.
A parallel route provides the best possible means by which REALTORS® can help achieve this important reform, which would allow California homeowners 55 years of age or older, the disabled, and victims of natural disasters to transfer their property tax basis to any home in the state and to transfer that tax basis any time they relocate.
Earlier this year, C.A.R. began the historic effort to address California’s unprecedented housing supply crisis as well as to increase homeownership opportunities for Californians by gathering nearly 1 million signatures—enough to qualify the Property Tax Fairness Initiative for the November 2018 General Election Ballot.
The initiative would eliminate the “moving penalty” for seniors 55 and older, the disabled, and victims of natural disasters, allowing them to carry their current Proposition 13-protected property tax assessment level to another home of any price, anywhere in the state, any number of times.
REALTORS® trust C.A.R. to make decisions to protect homeownership opportunities for all Californians, and that is the basis for this action. C.A.R. is confident it will ultimately be successful gaining voter approval of the Property Tax Fairness Initiative. C.A.R. Directors feel that pursuing a legislative solution to place a substitute measure on the 2020 ballot allows the Association to pursue other critical priorities this November including protection of the Costa-Hawkins law.
