Only $50? Like the minimum wage, why not ten times that number. People who own property are rich. After all, if they have property, they must have money. It is just as much trouble to get the voters to approve a $500 parcel tax as it is for a $50 tax. Besides, if the $50 tax were to pass, it would soon not be enough and we will just have to go back to the voters and demand more.
Its a parcel tax and its not linked to ability to pay. A millionaire in a mansion and a retire on a fixed income living in a bungalow would pay the same flat $50. Supporters have promised if its passed to increase the $50 per parcel tax every four years. This is a tax that would remain on the books forever regardless of whether or not it does anything to help the schools. And it would open the door to additional parcel taxes to further other special interests' causes leading to people being taxed again out of the homes and businesses. Proposition 88 would represent the first step in dismantling Proposition 13's taxpayer protections in California. That's why it must be shot down by a large margin to keep it from ever being resurrected again.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )