Backers of a proposed ballot measure that would plug up $1.7 billion worth of corporate tax loopholes written into the 2008 and 2009 budget deals have been cleared to start gathering petition signatures, Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced today.

The Attorney General’s official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

REPEALS RECENT LEGISLATION THAT WOULD ALLOW BUSINESSES TO CARRY BACK LOSSES, SHARE TAX CREDITS, AND USE A SALES-BASED INCOME CALCULATION TO LOWER TAXABLE INCOME. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Repeals recent legislation that would allow businesses to shift operating losses to prior tax years and that would extend the period permitted to shift operating losses to future tax years. Repeals recent legislation that would allow corporations to share tax credits with affiliated corporations. Repeals recent legislation that would allow multistate businesses to use a sales-based income calculation, rather than a combination property-, payroll- and sales-based income calculation. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Annual state revenue increase from business taxes of about $1.7 billion when fully phased in, beginning in 2011-12. (09-0058.)

For those who’ve forgotten, one of the corporate tax breaks enacted while all this budget slashing went on has let companies apply losses in bad years retroactively, so they can receive refunds on taxes paid in previous, better years. Another has let companies shift tax credits earned by one subsidiary to another subsidiary. And a third has let multistate companies pay state taxes based only on total California sales, rather than a prior formula that also included their workforces’ size and the amount of property they own.

The California Budget Project, which studies fiscal policies’ effect on the poor, blasted these breaks in a report last summer. As CBP Executive Director Jean Ross told my colleague Steve Harmon at the time, “The problem with dark-of-night deals is that you never get a chance to get a debate over value choices. These three tax breaks represent a reduction of one-third the income taxes paid by California corporations…. They really represent a stark contrast in values and what kind of future we want to see for Californians.”

The California Chamber of Commerce yesterday announced its opposition to this and four other proposed ballot measures on tax reform, saying they would “discourage investment here, killing more jobs and damaging recovery.”

Bowen’s news release lists San Leandro attorneys Robin Johansen and Karen Getman as the measure’s proponents, but they’re actually representing the Burlingame-based California Teachers Association. The proponents have until May 13, 2010 to gather valid signatures from at least 433,971 voters in order to put this on next November’s ballot. A similar measure put forth by the California Tax Reform Association went into circulation in September, with a February deadline.