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Economic Inclusion and Climate Equity

February 2020

By Jennifer Ito, Justin Scoggins, and Manuel Pastor

When we first released Getting Real About Reform in 2015, we presented a methodology for estimating county-level tax revenue gains from a change in law to assess commercial/industrial properties at market value in California. We subsequently updated the analysis in 2018, and here we update it again in 2020—the year an initiative will be on the November ballot to make such a change in law. While we build on the methods developed in that earlier work, we use here more recent data and alter our assumptions around average annual growth rates for both assessed value and market value to reflect likely market conditions. We then project our baseline estimates forward to 2021-22, and offer an estimate of the revenue implications for the Golden State and its diverse 58 counties under a system that assesses commercial and industrial property based on market rather than acquisition value. That analysis suggests a shift to market value assessment on the commercial and industrial side could yield 10.3 to 12.6 billion dollars statewide in additional property tax revenue.

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Getting Real about Reform II
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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