The same law that allows homeowners to pay property taxes based on the value of their home at the time of purchase also applies to corporate and business landowners. The most expensive real estate in the country is being taxed based on its value from over 20 years ago! So, where once the counties used to be able to contribute back to the State, the State now has to subsidize all of the counties!
Revenue has to come from somewhere, and our schools should be funded by property taxes, not by spend now-pay later bond issues. Every commercial owner of land should pay property taxes based on the present value of their land and improvements, not on the value assessed in the 1980's. This would not adversely effect the business climate in California, in fact it would give new businesses a fighting chance against the big, staid players who have helped ruin this state.
But, once again the Reaganite conservatives refuse to accept the fact that "trickle-down" economics was the root cause of the destruction of the entire American economy and refuse to make corporate America and the Super-Wealthy pay a slightly higher percentage of the income in taxes preferring rather to raise the sales tax and put the burden on those least capable of bearing it.
