LOS FELIZ, Calif. — It's been a long day of teaching in his closet-turned-office for high school English teacher Joseph Zeccola.

With his young son in hand in his Los Feliz apartment, he's now turning his attention to leading a teacher's union meeting, getting a pulse on how often teachers would like to virtually meet.

"Give me a yes if that works and a no if we need to consider going to every week?", said Zeccola.

Joseph teaches at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, and he's all in on voting YES on Prop 15.

The property tax initiative wouldn't impact residential property, but rather require commercial and industrial properties to be taxed based on their current market value.

"It takes corporate tax loopholes and closes them to bring in funding and redirect it toward schools and community services", said Zeccola.

In 1978, Prop 13 was passed by California voters to cap property taxes, because homeowners couldn't afford their taxes as their home values skyrocketed.

In addition, property could only be reassessed at market value when it was sold.

So for the past 42 years, funding for schools has slipped as teachers like Joseph feel big corporations haven't paid their fair share.

"So you have less money coming into the system which means less resources for kids which means higher class sizes, which means teachers pulling money out of their pocket if they want to be an effective teacher and want to do the things they want to do in the classroom", said Zeccola.

Over in Carson, the lunch rush is taking place at Darrow's New Orleans Grill, with traditional southern fare like catfish being breaded and fried.

As the kitchen cooks, owner Norwood Clark is focused on taking orders, like with a customer who hasn't come in since the pandemic began.

"Because we marinate that brisket for over 24 hours...we cook it for over 10 hours", said Clark.

As delicious as the brisket sounds, the pandemic has eliminated it from his offerings as he's now only open 4 days a week with a limited menu.

It's the repercussions of the coronavirus, forcing him to do what he can to keep his business afloat, and now the added fear of the future of Prop 15.

"We're really on pins and needles to see which direction this is going to go in, because as of right now, I can't understand in a world pandemic that we're looking at raising any form of taxes", said Clark.

Prop 15 would make an exception for commercial and industrial properties whose business owners have 3 million dollars or less in holdings, but as the tenant leasing this space, Norwood says he will have to absorb the potential cost as his landlord holds well over that threshold amount.

"If this proposition goes through, it's just inevitable that we're going to feel it on our end, which means that food costs, we're going to have to raise our prices and we put a moratorium on our prices because of the pandemic", said Clark.

If Prop 15 passes, the tax change would be phased-in starting in fiscal year 2022, with some properties seeing the change in fiscal year 2025.

Yearly revenue is expected to be between 8 and 12-billion dollars for community services and schools.

There's a lot at stake, but in Joseph's eyes, if this doesn't pass, education will hang in the balance.

"You're going to see layoffs like you've never seen before unless the federal government bails us out because the tax base has been wiped out, the citizenry is getting hit too hard", said Zeccola.

So this November, the future of California's tax roll, and those it could benefit, lie in the hands of voters.