Voter Guide: Proposition 39 - Income Tax Increase for Multistate Businesses

[Barry]

From the Pacific Sun:

YES - It's a huge tax advantage for companies to do business in California—without actually employing anyone here. That's the Grand Canyon-sized loophole many multistate corporations happily jump through to avoid an estimated $1 billion in total taxes they'd owe if they staffed their workers in the Golden State. Prop. 39 would close the loophole by requiring multistate businesses to pay income taxes based on the percentage of business they do in California. The revenues would go toward clean-energy programs. Opponents of the initiative—those would be multistate businesses with headquarters elsewhere—say it's a $1 billion tax increase on "job creators" (just not job creators in California). We prefer to think of it as requiring that multistate companies pay the taxes they should have been paying all along. Heck, if they don't like it, they can stop doing business in California. Yeah, right.

CA Democratic Party: Neutral

CA Green Party: Yes - Prop 39 does several related things at once that the Green Party favors – closes a corporate welfare tax loophole and addresses the state's budget structural deficit, while creating new green jobs and addresses climate change. For these reasons, the Green Party enthusiastically endorses Prop 39.

What do you think?