California Teachers Association’s Tax Breaks

The California Teachers Association announced on May-12 that an initiative to repeal nearly $2 billion in corporate tax breaks has garnered enough signatures to go to the November state ballot.

It was "Day of the Teacher" in California, but many of them had little to celebrate because of budget cuts and potential layoffs. In Oakland, teachers packed a school board meeting early Wednesday evening to make their concerns clear. There were rallies in other parts of the Bay Area to show support for teachers. In addition, the teachers union made two major announcements.

The Repeal Corporate Tax Loopholes Act would make the state stop giving tax breaks to large corporations, which the California Teachers Association says would help the state's budget crisis at a time when funding for schools has been slashed by billions of dollars in the past two years.

The teachers' union has invested $2 million to collect more than 800,000 signatures to qualify a measure for the November ballot to repeal a trio of corporate tax breaks approved in the last two years during state budget negotiations.

The union estimates the business tax breaks will cost the state's general fund roughly $2 billion per year. Democrats are expected to try to postpone the start date of the tax breaks, which have yet to go into effect, during the summer budget talks.