A Battle for the Soul of California: An Oral History of Prop 15

Few ballot measures have profoundly reshaped California as much as Prop 13. Passed in 1978 after being promoted by Republicans as a “people’s initiative” to slash property taxes, it has resulted in the loss of billions of dollars in revenue every year — primarily from corporations like Disneyland, which, as a result, are still paying 1970s-era taxes. Not only did it effectively torpedo the state’s public education system and gut its funding for infrastructure and social services, but it also set the stage for Reagan’s ascension to the White House two years later, ushering in what USC professor Manuel Pastor calls “an entire era of conservative thinking” that has rippled all the way to the corporate tax cuts of the Trump administration.  

More than 40 years after its passage, the measure that has long been viewed as untouchable may finally get touched — or more aptly, shoved. Credit the multi-generational, grassroots coalition of community activists, education advocates, tax scholars, and policy wonks who all came together over the last five years to write Prop 15, a ballot measure that would amend the state constitution and finally close the circa-1978 tax loophole. Rather than targeting individual homeowners or small businesses — it exempts properties whose owners have less than $3 million in holdings — it would take aim at corporate and industrial behemoths like Intel, mandating that they be taxed based on their market value, not their vastly-different purchase price. 

The organizers behind Prop 15 have spent years strategically refining the measure and assessing whether it was ready to go to the ballot. In April, just as the pandemic forced them to rethink their outreach methods, the coalition collected a whopping 1.7 million signatures, or more than have ever been submitted to qualify a ballot measure in the state’s history, according to Sabrina Smith at California Calls, one of the alliances that spearheaded the measure. In September, Prop 15 hit another major milestone: An endorsement from Governor Gavin Newsom. Now, with the pandemic and mass unemployment making local governments even more cash-strapped, organizers believe the time has never been better to pass Prop 15.

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Zachary Hoover
Executive Director, L.A. Voice 

I’m 41. I was born after Prop 13 was passed. I’ve never lived in a California that wasn’t affected by Prop 13. Some people have, they remember when we had more money in our budgets. They remember when kids from the community got hired to work at the parks or be lifeguards, where programs were available after school.

Sabrina Smith
Deputy Director, California Calls 

Prop 13 was really built as a benefit and a boon for homeowners, but the biggest beneficiaries have been commercial and industrial property owners and large corporations that have held onto land for decades. 

Manuel Pastor
Distinguished Professor, Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity, USC

Prop 13 was sold as protecting seniors on a fixed income. But when California voters passed this, they didn’t have in mind Disney Studios in Burbank or Intel’s property in Santa Clara County and the huge property tax benefits that would go to giant corporations.

Lenny Goldberg
Executive Director, California Tax Reform 

Prop 13 became the basis for [the Republican idea of] government as the problem, not the solution. A whole lot of Republicans got elected [in California] who were called the Prop 13 babies, people who were anti-tax, and that ideology has lasted for quite a long time. 

Manuel Pastor 

It launched an entire era of conservative thinking, that you could starve the government and you’d get the same level of services, that you could do something that was racially neutral on its face, but it had huge racial consequences. 

Sabrina Smith 

California used to be seventh in the nation in per pupil spending. Our schools were the rival of the world. We’ve now dropped 39th in per-pupil spending. California spends more funding on incarceration than it does on education. We’ve seen a significant loss of funding. 

Maria Brenes
Executive Director, InnerCity Struggle 

Our young people asked, “Well, why are our schools overcrowded, why do we not have enough teachers?” 

Lenny Goldberg

Everyone is nickel-and-dimed like crazy [as a result]. Everybody is paying higher fees, parking fees, park fees, library fees, whatever it is. We’ve been hitting up ordinary taxpayers, small ordinary businesses, forever to make up for the fact that these huge companies are locked in at 1975 values or ‘85 values or ‘95 values [based on when their property was last assessed].  

Maria Brenes

California was overinvesting in the prison system and underinvesting in the education system and yet it was one of the wealthiest economies in the world, but you don’t see that in our neighborhoods, in our communities. 

Zachary Hoover

This effort to reform Prop 13 started first as a partnership between organizations, which L.A Voice is part of, that California Calls spearheaded. 

Sabrina Smith

Back in 2015 is when we began to seriously explore what would reforming Prop 13 look like: How much revenue could be raised, what was the path to build power and take on the third rail of California politics? 

Zachary Hoover 

People call it the third rail of California politics. Like if you touch it, you’ll get electrocuted.

Lenny Goldberg 

They called on all the experts in tax policy, myself included, and brought together community organizations and said, “What is it that you think we need to do in order to revitalize California?” 

Sabrina Smith

We introduced legislation to vet it through the legislature and we began to do public education and organizing.

Lenny Goldberg 

Legislation is a collective process, it needs a lot of input, and by putting in legislation and lobbying and pushing for it pretty hard… it sharpened the focus. 

Zachary Hoover 

We got the signatures to put it on the ballot in 2016. We actually could have run it in 2016…. But for a campaign like this, it never hurts to have more time to plan and develop, to raise your funds and execute your strategy. 

Sabrina Smith

We were considering a run for the 2018 ballot, but we decided to wait until 2020. 

Lenny Goldberg 

After we qualified for the 2018 version, it took a lot of gearing back up, and some people complained a little bit.

Sabrina Smith

Then in 2019, we convened in a broader group of policy experts. We had conversations with the assessors in terms of implementation. We had a team of policy experts that worked together to really craft the legislation. 

Tina McKinnor
Civic Engagement Director, L.A. Voice 

There was one provision here that wasn’t on it in 2018. That was that they went in and they defined what small business was.

Zachary Hoover 

There were some revisions to the policy to make it more widely acceptable. Actually, that pushed up the revenue projections and also answered some challenges that different groups had, different constituencies had. 

Sabrina Smith 

We actually filed a stronger measure in 2019 and then collected signatures to get that on the 2020 ballot. 

Manuel Pastor 

The proponents of Prop 15 have been careful, building momentum, and patient. They could’ve put this on the ballot four years ago, they could’ve put it on the ballot two years ago. But in both cases they stepped away because they wanted more research, more base building, more alignment amongst political actors. I think it’s been waiting for its moment. 

Zachary Hoover

We took about 22 grassroots leaders to meet with the governor — not just folks from L.A. Voice and L.A. County, but also grassroots leaders and clergy from Central Valley, the Bay Area, through Northern California and San Diego County and I.E. We asked him, ‘Would you endorse?’ He wouldn’t commit at the time. This was probably March 2019… He just endorsed [last month]. I think it just took him time to see that there was a path to victory.

Manuel Pastor 

They gave enough political cover for the governor to come out and endorse it. Which was not an easy thing for him to do and he should be applauded for it. But political figures go often [only] as far as the terrain has shifted. 

Maria Brenes 

When it was time to gather signatures, we had the volunteer infrastructure to mobilize and activate voters to sign the petition. 

Sabrina Smith 

We submitted 1.7 million signatures this past April, which is the most signatures that have ever been submitted to qualify a ballot measure in California’s history. It’s a testament to the broad and powerful build over these past five years. It was a huge volunteer effort. 

Tina McKinnor  

Maybe last November we started [gathering signatures]. We had until January, February — it was fast. It wasn’t a long period of time. 

Sabrina Smith  

Luckily we had started early enough, because the pandemic and the stay at home guidelines came down right at the end of the tail end of our signature gathering program.

Tina McKinnor  

We’re in a unique position that we haven’t been in in a long time. We have COVID. We have lots of people that are unemployed. Our community is going to need this cash for different things and services. I think that it’s the whole picture now. 

Sabrina Smith 

We will mobilize 12,000 volunteers. Our plan is to deliver 3 to 5% of the winning vote, specifically focused on infrequent voters, voters who typically don’t vote down ballot, young voters, communities of color. 

Maria Brenes 

We’ve learned that other community members are the best spokespeople to motivate our voters — voters that traditional campaigns don’t target and ignore. 

Zachary Hoover 

There’s such a widespread coalition supporting it. We might not have the cash like the biggest donors to the opposition coalition, but we have respected leaders from all corners of the state, small business leaders, faith leaders, elected officials, cities that have endorsed. 

Lenny Goldberg 

I always say a healthy public sector rests on a base of fair taxation, but it’s very hard to motivate people to get engaged. I’m amazed at the young activists, people of color, all sorts of folks who are so engaged in this, that it’s really a hugely healthy sign of change. 

Manuel Pastor 

It’s just a remarkably well disciplined group of activists and labor folks who have come together to put this on the ballot. They’ve raised a fair amount of money. It’s pretty unusual. 

Maria Brenes 

The stakes are so high and that’s why I think young people and people in the community understand, they’re being affected every day. 

Zachary Hoover 

The fact that grassroots groups helped lead this effort at the center of it is also unique in California politics. It wasn’t big corporations putting on something. It wasn’t labor by themselves putting on something. It was a grassroots-driven effort in partnership with labor. 

Manuel Pastor 

This is a battle for the soul of California. Who are we, who do we invest in, and do we want to be in the bottom ten of investing in children, or do we want to move our way to being the progressive state that we preach?

Tina McKinnor 

This election is different than any one in our whole lifetime. Get out the vote is usually about five days before election; get out the vote will last this time from October 5th through Election Day, because everyone’s getting these mail-in ballots. 

Sabrina Smith 

We’ve had to kind of pivot our infrastructure and strategy to adapt to the shelter-in-place orders: Folks phoning from their homes, doing trainings over Zoom and virtual meetings to create a sense of community and momentum. 

Maria Brenes 

2020 didn’t turn out as we expected in terms of the pandemic, but the stakes are higher. The moment really calls on us to move forward, and I think voters are making the connections more than ever before. 

Tina McKinnor 

We don’t know how the mail is going to work. We don’t know how the voting centers are going to work. It’s a tricky election year. We’re just going to stay on it and keep working really hard on it.

Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.