When property tax caps go horribly wrong: CA Prop 13
This open letter to Governor Schwarzenegger lays out the how the 1978 property tax cap California passed has really messed up the state and has created grossly unfair tax situations (it's a bit long, abstract here)."...the measure's untoward consequences—from the disempowerment of local government to the decimation of a once-proud educational system, unequal taxes on equal properties and yawning tax loopholes for business—demand a rigorous re-examination of Proposition 13 and its legacy."
...
"We now know that Proposition 13 has greased California's slide from a model state to a state so mired in educational, fiscal and political dysfunction that you have to wonder how we can ever make things right again."
You gotta hope the Texas legislature is aware of Prop 13's hard lessons as it considers its own property tax caps.
posted by Tory Gattis @ 8:46 PM
2 Comments:
Prop 13 is working. I am an appraiser for a county assessor and believe me with the value of property in this state there is more than enough money. A starter home of 1500 sq ft in the central valley( cheaper area) can be 300000 to 350000 times that by a tax rate of 1.20 % .Government waste is a major concern. Like spending money at the end of the year to ensure next years budget is at least the same.
Politicians like to spend money and when you pay an elected official more money than he can make in the real world you get problems.
California GUY
There are lots of parts of Prop 13 that should be done away with. But the famous part, the tax cap on residences, should stay. Commercial real estate gets its value from its incomes, so a property tax on it is really sort of an income tax, The current value of owned residences has no relationship to its income, or its owner's income, so a property tax soaring with increasing property value is like ever increasing rent, and will work like eminent domain to bring about compulsory gentrification.
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