Proposition 13 isn't the problem

LA Times ^ | 7/9/09 | Joel Fox

[NormsRevenge]

The "Blame 13" chorus is at it again. You can always count on it to sing "It's all Proposition 13's fault" during difficult economic times. The story has gone national, with columns in Time magazine and the New York Times taking shots at Proposition 13. The attacks are probably best summed up by an editorial cartoon picturing Proposition 13 as the beginning of the end for California civilization.

Let's get the facts straight. Despite the cap instituted by Proposition 13, property taxes have increased dramatically in California. According to Board of Equalization data, property tax revenue has increased 800% since the measure passed in 1978 -- from $5.6 billion a year to $50 billion. Compare that with general fund revenue -- made up largely of sales, income and corporate taxes -- which has increased 500% over the same period.

Attempts to change Proposition 13 tend to focus on two approaches. One is to divide residential property and commercial property and tax them on a different basis, using either a different tax rate or a different assessment schedule. .. called a "split roll" ...

The other approach is to reduce the requirement to pass a state tax from the two-thirds legislative vote established by Proposition 13 to a lesser percentage. (Proposition 13 is often mistakenly charged with the requirement of a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to pass the state budget. Not true. That requirement took root during the Depression.)

The split-roll proposal is self-defeating for an economy trying to dig itself out of a hole, and implementing it would cost jobs. Former state legislative analyst William Hamm co-wrote a study last year that claimed a 1% increase in business property tax rates would lead to 43,000 jobs lost. With double-digit unemployment, that is something California can ill afford.

[CIB-173RDABN]

We have been down this road so many times in the past.

Lack of money is not the problem. It is out of control spending.

Sacramento could take every dollar from every productive citizen in the State of California and it would still not be enough.

I am not sure if this is the year they learn this lesson, but sometime in the future their house of cards will fall on them.

Remember, there are actually two Californias. The Liberal Socialist California along the coast and the Conservative California in the center and far north and far south.

It is easier to steal elections in the big cities than it is to steal them in the rual area. I wonder if California is really as far left as is reflected in Sacramento.

[kjo]

Maybe a federal judge can overturn the California State Consitution....you know,....not in keeping with the 14th Amendment or something.

[Wuli]

“Let’s get the facts straight. Despite the cap instituted by Proposition 13, property taxes have increased dramatically in California. According to Board of Equalization data, property tax revenue has increased 800% since the measure passed in 1978 — from $5.6 billion a year to $50 billion. Compare that with general fund revenue — made up largely of sales, income and corporate taxes — which has increased 500% over the same period.”

None of these figures provide an accurate picture without the same figures also given as a % of state GDP, then and now, and without comparative tax rates, then and now, given as well. Without that they are just numbers without enough context.

[wac3rd]

The Liberal “the money is ours” mentality (Joe Klein, NYT, Democrats) think they own your life and assets, you just borrow it from them to live.

Less money to government, more to the private sector.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Citizen intervention is becoming necessary.

[dcwusmc]

Intervention which includes lamp posts and ropes, tar and feathers.

[B Knotts]

The other thing is with home prices plummeting, Prop. 13 isn’t having much of an effect right now.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Eventually.