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Economic Inclusion and Climate Equity

May 2015

By Jennifer Ito, Justin Scoggins, and Manuel Pastor

Please note: reports dated earlier than June 2020 were published under our previous names: the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) or the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII).

In coming years, tax reform will likely be on the agenda in California. Given the large-scale cuts that were experienced during the Great Recession and the fact that a subset of new revenue generated from Proposition 30, approved by voters in 2012, is set to expire at the end of 2016, discussions about both structural changes in the way we tax and whether such changes will yield new revenues will occupy the attention of both policymakers and the public.

One such set of discussions is concerned with revisiting the provisions of commercial property assessments ushered in under Proposition 13, which was approved by voters nearly 40 years ago. While much has been written about Proposition 13 and its effect on residential property, only limited empirical analysis has been generated with regards to commercial property.

In this brief, we build on earlier work of academics from the California State University, Sacramento and experts from Blue Sky Consulting Group and provide an analysis of ten consecutive years of county assessor data on all non-government-owned commercial and industrial property in California covering the years 2004 to 2013.

We use this data to focus on one question: How much additional revenue would be collected from changing the way commercial property is assessed from one based on acquisition value to one based on market value?

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Getting Real About Reform (2015)

Read our other publications by research area

    Immigrant Integration & Racial Justice

    Our work on immigrant integration and racial justice brings together three emphases: scholarship that draws on academic theory and rigorous research, data that provides information structured to highlight the process of immigrant integration over time, and engagement that seeks to create new dialogues with government, community organizers, business and civic leaders, immigrants and the voting public to advance immigrant integration and racial equity.

    Economic Inclusion & Climate Equity

    In the area of economic inclusion, we at ERI advance academic theory and practical applications linking economic growth, environmental quality, and civic health with bridging of racial and other gaps; produce accessible and actionable data and analysis through the data tools; and establish research partnerships to deepen and advance the dialogue, planning, and actions around racial equity, environmental justice, and the built environment.

    Social Movements & Governing Power

    ERI’s work in the area of governing power includes: conducting cross-disciplinary studies of today’s social movements, supporting learning and strategizing efforts to advance dialogues among organizers, funders, intermediaries, evaluators, and academics, and developing research-based social change frameworks and tools to inform—and be informed by—real-world, real-time efforts towards a vision of deep change.

    Publications Directory

    In 2020, the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) merged to form the USC Equity Research Institute (ERI).

    The full list of publications published under our previous and current names can be found in our publications directory.

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