When letters to the editor of The Modesto Bee turn into manipulation
It started quietly. Discreetly. Almost under the radar.
I admit, we didn’t notice at first. Who could blame us? We receive and process multiple letters to the editor each week. It’s not surprising that we failed, initially, to see a common thread in a few letters to the editor complaining about corporate tax loopholes.
A few were printed before I realized that someone or some group is stealthily running another special-interest campaign of letters to the editor of The Modesto Bee.
It’s not the worst thing. Honestly, I’m more amused than offended. Maybe I’m even flattered that people hoping to influence public opinion would use The Bee’s opinions page as a vehicle.
I started putting on hold any letter to the editor bashing corporations, declining to publish them until I could figure out what was going on. Soon, we had a half-dozen, all well-written and none the same, but with overlapping subject areas. Then we had a dozen, then more.
Eventually, two or three cited the California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act. That’s a working title for a statewide proposition that supporters hope to qualify for the November 2020 ballot; a signature-gathering petition phase runs through the spring. It’s starting to attract media attention, and it’s significant enough that all of us should know what it means.
If embraced by California voters next year, the law would change some parts of Proposition 13. That’s the landmark property tax reform adopted in 1978 mostly to protect home owners from runaway property tax increases, although it also applies to business land.
The current campaign would require that owners of commercial and industrial land worth $3 million or more pay property taxes tied to current value instead of based on value when the land was purchased or improved. The change could raise from $7.5 billion to $12 billion a year, the state Legislative Analyst’s office says. Because it would require that tax rolls be split into two categories — one continuing to enjoy Prop. 13 protections, the other exposed to new rules — it’s called a split-roll initiative.
Supporters include labor unions and progressive office holders, including Democratic presidential contenders Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Unions like it because the extra money would go to schools, cities and counties, and progressives see it as helping to level the playing field by having the rich pay more.
Opponents are conservatives and business interests, including the California Taxpayers Association and California Chamber of Commerce. They say it would hurt everyone because businesses would simply pass the cost burden to consumers, raising prices on everything we buy. Government should learn to get by with what we’ve already given them, they contend.
How do I know that supporters of the split tax roll initiative are running such a letter-writing campaign?
Because I called people who sent those letters, who are real people living in this area. Some acknowledged being coached by Working America, which has a Modesto office and helps people who don’t belong to a union but favor “good jobs, a fair economy and a democracy that represents all of us.”
The group sponsors a “Strategic tactic guide: Letter to the editor” website with specific instructions calculated to improve odds that The Bee, and other media, will choose letters for publication.
You’ll see a few examples of these letters on the second page of today’s opinions section. Others can be viewed online at modbee.com.
Today’s column does not pass judgment on the split-roll initiative, although I expect our editorial board will issue an opinion next fall.
My purpose with this column is partly to let people know that a big fight is coming over this issue. It’s also to alert those engaged in the letter-writing campaign that we’re on to you.
We want people to send letters to the editor. This page is an informative and hopefully entertaining place for public dialogue on all sorts of important topics, from pets and animal cruelty to climate change and impeachment hearings. And, corporate taxes.
We don’t, however, appreciate attempts to hijack our opinions page for any single person or issue. Some will remember a few months ago when I discouraged U.S. Rep. Josh Harder’s camp from systematically inundating us with letters of praise; we appreciate that they’ve slowed dramatically since, and we’ll continue printing them from time to time, sometimes balanced with letters from supporters of candidates challenging him in the March Primary.
If we receive more letters complaining about greedy corporations, and we expect to, they will be treated similarly — a few may make it into print, while others will appear in our digital product. The same rules will apply to letters about candidates as we get closer to election season.
A gentle reminder: Don’t let someone put your name to something you didn’t write, unless it’s clearly a group letter.
Keep those genuine letters coming, folks. We all benefit, and democracy is stronger, when people exchange ideas.
