Commentary

Opinion: Not Knowing This Trivia Could Cost You

Published

5 years ago

October 24, 2019

In 1978, Mohammed Ali was easily the most famous person in America, Funkadelic topped the music charts, and The Wiz was just released. That year California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 13, profoundly changing the economic outlook for many. Along with wondering which Funkadelic album topped the charts it’s also fair to ask what is Prop. 13 and why is it important to me?

Between 1973 and 1977, property taxes on single-family homes skyrocketed, increasing by 50-100 percent. Families, seniors, and small businesses were faced with the losing their properties because they couldn’t afford to pay their property taxes. Many families were forced from their homes and small businesses were left with no choice but to raise prices.

In 1978 voters overwhelmingly passed Prop. 13, limiting property tax increases and putting an end to the days of unpredictable property taxes. Four decades later, Prop. 13 remains the only constitutional measure that helps control rising costs in California.

For small businesses and families of color, Prop. 13 has been a vital tool. By capping general property tax increases at 2 percent, it has allowed homeowners to budget for their future. For small business owners, Prop. 13 has provided certainty with their business costs. For you and me, it has kept costs down at neighborhood stores.

Today Prop. 13 is under assault. The timing could not be worse. A recent Wall Street Journal article confirms African American homeownership is at an all-time low, falling 8.6 percent since 2004. Weakening Prop. 13 will make housing more expensive, including for those who rent, and will have a profound impact on many small business owners who rent their place of business.

Homeownership is the primary path to building wealth and upward mobility for low and moderate-income families. A 2007 survey of Consumer Finances shows nationally that principal residences constituted 54% of all household wealth for African Americans.

Millennial voters of color, many of whom aren’t old enough to remember what it was like before Prop 13’s passage, need to understand that Prop 13 protects our community’s collective mobility. Now, more than ever, we have a duty to build wealth and be the sole proprietors of it. Weakening, or doing away with Prop 13 will hurt, not help, California’s African American community.

Business leaders, social justice organizations, veterans groups and more than 2,500 others have banded together to protect Prop 13 from becoming extinct. I am proud to include myself and the California State Conference of the NAACP as among those that stand in support of Prop 13.

The stakes are too high for consumers and homeowners, renters and businesses large and small. We can certainly be excused for not knowing Funkadelic’s chart topping album title, or not having seen The Wiz. That won’t cost us anything. But not knowing about the benefits of Prop 13 or the impacts if it were to go away, is not just costly to you and me, its costly for California and our economy as a whole.

More information can be found at https://www.fightforprop13.org

Alice Huffman is the president of the California/Hawaii NAACP and is also a member of the NAACP’s National Board. She runs her own consulting firm, AC Public Affairs, Inc.

Bay Area Policy Brief re commercial property tax reform.

Alice Huffman

Posts by Alice Huffman

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

Published

7 days ago

April 26, 2024

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

Published

2 weeks ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

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Commentary

Opinion: Surviving the Earthquake, an Eclipse and “Emil Amok.”

Last Friday, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook New York City, reported as the “biggest earthquake with an epicenter in the NYC area since 1884” when a 5.2 quake hit. A bit bigger. The last quake similar to Friday’s was a 4.9 in 1783.Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago. That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

Published

2 weeks ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

In New York City, the eclipse was about 90 percent visible. Good enough for me. Though a full solar eclipse is a celestial rarity, blockages of any sort aren’t generally celebrated. My one-man play is about growing up with the eclipsed history of American Filipinos and how I struggle to unblock all that.

By Emil Guillermo

I’m a Northern Californian in New York City for the next few weeks, doing my one-man show, “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad.”

I must like performing in the wake of Mother Nature.

Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago.

That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

And it just doesn’t happen that often.

Beyonce singing country music happens more frequently.

When I felt New York shake last week, it reminded me of a time in a San Francisco TV newsroom when editors fretted about a lack of news an hour before showtime.

Then the office carpeting moved for a good ten seconds, and the news gods gave us our lead story.

On Friday when it happened in NYC, I noticed the lines in the carpeting in my room wiggling. But I thought it was from a raucous hotel worker vacuuming nearby.

I didn’t even think earthquake. In New York?

I just went about my business as if nothing had happened. After living near fault lines all my life, I was taking things for granted.

Considering the age of structures in New York, I should have been even more concerned about falling objects inside (shelves, stuff on walls) and outside buildings (signs, scaffolding), fire hazards from possible gas leaks, and then I should have looked for others on my floor and in the hotel lobby to confirm or aid or tell stories.

Of course, as a Californian who has lived through and covered quakes in the 4 to 6 magnitude range, I tried to calm down any traumatized New Yorker I encountered by taking full responsibility for bringing in the quake from the Bay Area.

I reassured them things would be all right, and then let them know that 4.8s are nothing.

And then I invited them to my consoling post-Earthquake performance of “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host…”

It was the night of the eclipse.

ECLIPSING THE ECLIPSE

For example, did you know the first Filipinos actually arrived to what is now California in 1587? That’s 33 years before the Pilgrims arrived in America on the other coast, but few know the Filipino history which has been totally eclipsed.

I was in Battery Park sitting on a bench and there was a sense of community as people all came to look up. A young woman sitting next to me had a filter for a cell phone camera. We began talking and she let me use it. That filter enabled me to take a picture of the main event with my iPhone.

For helping me see, I invited her and her boyfriend to come see my show.

Coincidentally, she was from Plymouth, Massachusetts, near the rock that says the year the Pilgrims landed in 1620.

In my show she learned the truth. The Pilgrims were second.

History unblocked. But it took a solar eclipse.

Next one in 2044? We have a lot more unblocking to do.

If you’re in New York come see my show, Sat. April 13th, 5:20 pm Eastern; Fri. April 19, 8:10 pm Eastern; and Sun. April 21st 5:20 pm Eastern.

You can also livestream the show. Get tickets at www.amok.com/tickets

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a mini-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. He wishes all his readers a Happy Easter!