As California voters prepare to pick candidates for the November elections, the state is facing a variety of problems that have take some of the glow off the Golden State. California has a housing shortage that has made it hard for many to find a home to buy, or even a rental apartment they can afford. Higher operating costs, higher taxes and excessive regulation makes it hard to create or sustain a business, whether a joint-stock company or a family owned retail shop or cafe.

California has a legal marijuana market that is so overtaxed and overregulated that otherwise law-abiding citizens continue to buy on the black market. California has a crime problem – Republicans respond with too many new laws and too much punishment. Democrats have tried to correct this, but too often fail to protect citizens from real crimes of theft and violence.

Tom Steyer has spent more than 100 million dollars to make himself one of the leading candidates for Governor in the upcoming primary. Steyer is trying to prove he is a progressive by supporting new government programs and new taxes to pay for them. A billionaire, he has announced his support for a new wealth tax on billionaires. The tax is popular with progressives, and Tom Steyer wants their votes. Progressives think they can limit this tax to the very rich, but the history of taxation tells a different story.

In 1914, when Congress passed the first income tax, few Americans had to file a return, let alone pay the tax. Only the very rich were required to file a return and pay income tax. The rest looked forward to benefitting from the tax burden of people better off than them. Within a few years, America entered the European war, and tax rates went up. More importantly, people who thought they would never have to pay the new tax, found that Washington DC wanted their money for the war. 20 years later, another war brought new hikes in tax rates, and new taxpayers subject to new taxes.

Tom Steyer is not planning to wait for the trickle down taxation that will follow adoption of a wealth tax. Middle class homeowners already pay a wealth tax – the property tax – on the house they own. Family owned businesses pay a wealth tax – the property tax – on any real estate, including improvements – that they own. Property taxes are collected every year – in two semi-annual payments – unlike the proposed tax on billionaires, which will be a one-time collection.

We know the effect of property taxes on middle class families. Before Proposition 13 limited property taxes, it was common for people to face devastating increases in their tax bill. Retired homeowners forced to sell because they could not afford a higher property tax. Families inheriting a business – a store or a cafe – and selling the building because property taxes made the business a losing proposition. Proposition 13 prevented many tragedies like this. Proposition has enabled families to have a secure homestead, and it has made it possible for independent retailers and family-owned restaurants to survive and pass down to new generations.

Proposition 13 is popular among California homeowners, regardless of party affiliation. Democrat candidates know better than to threaten this protection for homeowners. So the progressive Democrats have proposed several times to modify proposition 13 by creating a split roll -with a higher tax rate for commercial property. Higher tax rates for that family owned Mexican or Chinese restaurant you like; higher rates for that independent book shop you patronise. Higher rates for the business that a family counts on to pay the bills.

Tom Steyer wants to schedule a special election to create a split roll. He says the state needs more tax money, and it cannot wait.

Private prisons and ICE detention centers have not had a problem with property taxes. The tax funded payments they get from governments cover those costs and a healthy payback for Tom Steyer and other investors. Tom Steyer does not worry about the cost that middle class families pay every year to keep their property from being confiscated by the state of California. His businesses don’t need the space that a retail shop or a restaurant needs. He has no sympathy for the small business owner. His only goal is to get votes from progressives who don’t trust billionaires. And he might do it, with his vast sums.

Raising taxes on business property would create an existential threat every small business in California. It would threaten local communities across all demographic lines. Small business needs the same protection from high taxes that families need in their personal life. Tom Steyer personafies that threat, with his call for higher taxes on middle class businesses, already hurt by Donald Trump’s tariffs and the Trump’s immigration crackdown.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has denounced the wealth tax that Steyer supports. Mahan has denounces Steyer’s call for changing Proposition 13 as “crazy.” Matt Mahan has pointed out that in the last six years spending by the state government has climbed by 75%. He has pointed out that the real problems in California are aggravated by high taxes and too much regulation. Taxes and regulation make it twice as costly to build a house in California as in Colorado.

Matt Mahan opposes the wealth tax, and he opposes increasing property tax on businesses in California. The California Libertarian Report recommends a vote for Matt Mahan for Governor on June 2

To find out more about Matt Mahan, visit his campaign site @ https://www.mahanforcalifornia.com/