The fate of Proposition 15, an effort to remove high-value business properties from the low-tax protections enacted by California voters more than four decades ago, was unclear in early election returns Tuesday, after an expensive and fierce campaign over how much to spend on government services and the economic effects of raising taxes.
The ballot measure was opposed by a razor-thin majority with more than 9.5 million ballots counted, a shortfall that was far from certain with millions of votes left to count.
The ballot measure seeks to curtail the rules governing property taxes that were established by Proposition 13 in 1978, which set the annual levy at 1% of a property’s value and allows only small adjustments to the assessed value until there is a change in ownership. Those strict limits apply
