"A mechanical engineer, perennial candidate for higher office and Silicon Valley gadfly, Kumar shamelessly pandered to baby boomers last year while running to be the next assessor of Santa Clara County, repeatedly misleading voters that, were he to win, he'd exempt seniors from property taxes. Kumar knew that lowering taxes isn't the duty of county assessors, whose core job is establishing the value of taxable properties. They can't set tax rates or even collect taxes."
"Unfortunately, Kumar is still moving forward with his campaign promise of a statewide initiative to prevent homeowners 60 and over from paying property taxes. The measure awaits an official ballot title and summary from the state attorney general. From there, Kumar says, he'll be building the operation to collect the required 874,641 signatures to place the initiative in front of voters in November."
Rishi Kumar campaigned promising to exempt seniors from property taxes despite county assessors lacking authority to set or collect taxes. Kumar lost the Santa Clara County assessor runoff to Assistant Assessor Neysa Fligor by nearly a 2-1 margin. Kumar is pursuing a statewide constitutional initiative to exempt homeowners 60 and over from property taxes and plans to gather 874,641 signatures after obtaining an official ballot title and summary. The initiative would effectively amplify Proposition 13, delivering large tax breaks to property-owning seniors while cutting local government revenue used for services, including homelessness programs. The proposal targets high-propensity senior property voters and faces long odds of qualifying.
Read at The Mercury News
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