Over the last 40 years, large corporations have not been paying their fair share for services that help our communities thrive, resulting in impacts like program cuts, understaffing, and high-turnover at many workplaces. 

Schools and Communities First Initiative closes loopholes that big corporations and wealthy investors use to avoid paying their fair share of property taxes. The statewide signature-gathering initiative –backed by SEIU– would result in higher property taxes for commercial and industrial properties while protecting renters and homeowners. The initiative will bring in $12 billion every year to ensure that our schools and communities have the resources to educate our next generation.

“Members like me who work for a city, a county, a school district or another public jurisdiction know firsthand how hard it is to deliver top quality services, maintain staffing levels, hire and retain outstanding workers without adequate funding. For me this is about being able to deliver high-quality services to our kids, community members, families and seniors,” said Andrea Mullarkey, City of Berkeley Librarian and SEIU 1021 COPE Co-Chair

Closing this loophole will mean corporations pay their fair share of taxes generating revenue for libraries, parks, schools, senior centers, homeless outreach workers, environmental health and all the work employees do.

“So whether you are a city or school district worker or not, regardless of where our members work, we all live in these communities. We know that our kids deserve well-funded schools and our neighbors should have access to well-funded city services regardless of their zip code. We pay our fair share and this is something we can do to ensure that corporations pay their fair share, too,” said Mullarkey.