http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/prop13/ en-us Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:06:25 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2140458/posts by Wayne Lusvardi California syndicated columnist Thomas Elias is out with a state-wide column in local newspapers which sounds a lot like boosterism for a revision of California Prop 13 for what is called a "split property tax roll." This "change" would tax commercial properties at full current market value but leave residences exempt from any tax increases until they re-sold as presently provided under Prop 13. According to Elias: "This would be a change to the actual Proposition 13, but it would not affect residences, either. Rather, it would see higher taxes coming from large, money-making properties than from... Pasadena Sub Rosa http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2140458/posts#comment Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:06:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2138753/posts California's financial free fall is likely to get much worse before it gets better, spreading from the statehouse to every other level of government, including schools, cities, counties and the special districts that fight fires, maintain parks and levees and run libraries. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers are already grappling with an expected drop in revenue from taxes on personal income, sales and corporate profits. Since they adopted the budget in September, the state's revenue estimate for the current year has dropped by $11 billion, or about 10 percent, with no prospect for a recovery in sight. But that... Sac Bee http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2138753/posts#comment Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:00:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2076911/posts Do you get the impression Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has reached a level of flippant frustration in his efforts to “fix Kaleefornya?” The latest budget impasse may be the final, insulting reality that blew away any illusion he had that the nation's most populous state - and one of the world's largest economies - can be rationally governed. His recent executive order to reduce state employees' pay to the federal minimum wage level, and to lay off thousands of part-time state employees, might be an expression of peevish exasperation, but it does strike at the heart of California's chronic budget problem,... Santa Maria Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2076911/posts#comment Sun, 7 Sep 2008 22:27:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046358/posts Editorial: Assessment ruling won't serve state well Monday's state Supreme Court decision striking down an assessment by the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority was one more nail in the coffin of California's quality of life. Not that the court was unreasonable. The justices were interpreting Proposition 218, as convoluted and mean-spirited an anti-tax law as California voters ever passed. The 1996 initiative aimed to tighten the rules set by Proposition 13 to make it even harder for government to raise revenue, and it's succeeding all too well. Californians must come to grips with the kind of place they want... San Jose Mercury News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046358/posts#comment Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:59:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044247/posts Taxes: Thirty years ago, Californians took to the ballot box to save their homes and put some brakes on the growth of government. Now, even the government is reaping the benefits.It may not get much national notice, but a significant man-bites-dog story has emerged from the debris of California's real estate bust. Cities and counties are finding that their assessment rolls actually are going up while house values are diving. Los Angeles County, for example, has seen its latest roll rise 6.9% to $1.1 trillion even as area home prices have depreciated 23%. Even nearby Riverside County, where the housing... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044247/posts#comment Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:18:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2043112/posts For decades, Proposition 13 has been cast as the bane of cash-strapped local government, limiting property tax revenues even as California's housing market soared. But this week, as county assessors reported rising tax bases despite the housing slump, they credited the 30-year-old law -- revealing its unexpected role as an economic stabilizer. Counties across Southern California reported that their overall tax bases grew compared with last year's. The corresponding revenue increase occurred despite falling home prices and even though assessors have reduced the property values on nearly 600,000 homes in five Southland counties in the last few months because of... LA Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2043112/posts#comment Wed, 9 Jul 2008 22:24:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1989758/posts Los Angeles - California, home to 1 in 9 American schoolchildren, is on the brink of what may be the biggest public education crisis in state history. Facing a $16 billion state budget shortfall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed $4.8 billion in school-funding cuts, or 10 percent of education spending. In the past week, over 20,000 preliminary pink slips were sent by school districts to teachers and administrators state wide, according to the California Teachers Association. The association estimates another 87,000 (of a total 350,000 public school teachers) could come if Governor Schwarzenegger holds to his budget cut request. Some... CSM on yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1989758/posts#comment Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:53:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944576/posts GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) - Audrey Davison lives alone, gets a $620 Social Security check each month and worries about the sharply rising taxes on her four-bedroom house. Davison, 76, raised her family there and after 43 years, she really doesn't want to leave Greenburgh. Greenburgh doesn't want her to leave, either. The town is pushing a program that would let seniors work part-time, for $7 an hour, to help pay off some of their property taxes. "People shouldn't have to sell their house, move away to a place with less taxes, leave behind their family and friends," said Town Supervisor... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944576/posts#comment Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:31:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1813504/posts California voters in 1978 amended the state constitution to set the bar high for increasing property taxes. Tax bills in those years had been increasing at such rates that many people, especially those on fixed incomes, were priced out of their homes. A taxpayers' revolt resulted in voter approval of Proposition 13, limiting taxes to 1 percent of property value, with annual increases held to 2 percent and establishing a two-thirds supermajority standard at the ballot box to change the limits. It reduced property taxes by about 57 percent. Now freshman Democrat Assemblyman Jared Huffman of San Rafael wants to... OC Register http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1813504/posts#comment Sat, 7 Apr 2007 06:41:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1591866/posts CARMEL VALLEY ---- The state Department of Education is working to place an initiative for a $50 parcel tax on the November ballot as a way to pump an additional $500 million a year into public school education, State Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell said Monday. The tax, an annual assessment of $50 on every property in California, could generate an additional $500 million that would be earmarked specifically for California schools. EdVoice, described by its leaders as an organization of reform-minded philanthropists who support greater student achievement through investment, is backing the measure, said EdVoice president Christopher Cabaldon. The... North County Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1591866/posts#comment Tue, 7 Mar 2006 21:30:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1571885/posts www.KaloogianForCongress.com(State Assemblyman 1994 – 2000, 74th Assembly District) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, January 31, 2006 Contact: Sal Russo – (916) 441-3734 POWERHOUSE ENDORSEMENT: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Endorses HOWARD KALOOGIAN For 50th Congressional District (SAN DIEGO) – Republican Congressional Candidate, Howard Kaloogian (website: www.KaloogianForCongress.com ), has been endorsed in his campaign for U.S. Congress by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association PAC. In their letter of support to Kaloogian, the HJTA PAC wrote: “We appreciate your outstanding record of defending Proposition 13 and the interests of taxpayers. We look forward to continuing to work with you in the years ahead.” Kaloogian... Kaloogian for Congress http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1571885/posts#comment Sat, 4 Feb 2006 21:25:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1549944/posts OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Some Olympic Peninsula homeowners have enlisted influential support for a bid to limit property taxes by amending the state constitution. The homeowners' group, called Property Owners for Predictable Tax Now, is pushing for a 1 percent annual cap on the increase in a home's assessed value. Organizers say the measure would help keep property tax increases predictable amid hot housing markets, which can push up the estimated market value of a home unexpectedly from year to year. "Once you get on a fixed income, and you get broadsided by one of these gargantuan bills, there's nothing... OregonLive http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1549944/posts#comment Sat, 31 Dec 2005 22:39:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1539685/posts A loosely knit band of Silicon Valley's wealthiest is back with a new scheme to increase the burden on property tax payers. This group is mostly the same billionaire boy's club members that spent $60 million in 2000 on a successful campaign to make it easier to increase property taxes for school bonds, while vigorously defending tax breaks for their own industry. Since then, local districts have successfully passed more than $39 billion in local school bonds, but for these hi-tech industry elites, it's not enough. Now they have filed a new tax hiking initiative that would hit every property... CaliforniaRepublic.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1539685/posts#comment Tue, 13 Dec 2005 19:22:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1465401/posts The passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 ignited, as has often been observed, a more or less perpetual fiscal crisis in California - a chronic gap between the promises and expectations for state and local spending and the ability of the tax system to generate revenue to meet those expectations. Proposition 13 also sparked another phenomenon whose effect has been even wider - government by ballot measure. As the Capitol became increasingly polarized and gridlocked, in part because of the aforementioned fiscal conundrum, the purveyors of political causes, whether on the right or left, increasingly turned to the initiative as... Sacramento Bee http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1465401/posts#comment Wed, 17 Aug 2005 22:28:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1457135/posts SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state's largest teachers union has dropped an initiative that would have poured billions of dollars into schools by raising property taxes on businesses, union officials said Thursday. Instead, the California Teachers Association will work with the opponents of the "Tax Fairness Act" to craft long-term solutions to school funding in the state, CTA president Barbara Kerr said. The CTA had gathered enough signatures - more than 900,000 - to qualify the initiative for the June 2006 ballot, Kerr said. It would have exempted California commercial and business properties from Proposition 13's rule that property value, upon... AP on Bakersfield Californian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1457135/posts#comment Thu, 4 Aug 2005 22:49:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1449826/posts Fueled by California's red-hot real estate boom, Los Angeles city and county property tax revenues have soared as much as 40 percent in the last five years, hitting homebuyers hard in their pocketbooks. The revenues have been a boon for local governments, with homeowners paying $9.5 billion in property taxes in fiscal 2004-05, compared with $6.7 billion in 2000-01. But the windfall that's being spent to hire more cops and enhance public service is coming at the expense of new homebuyers, who pay thousands a year more in property taxes than long-term homeowners under provisions of Proposition 13. Dana Ullerich... LA Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1449826/posts#comment Mon, 25 Jul 2005 05:32:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442520/posts The tax revenue windfall. For local government officials, it is the major topic of conversation. They are delighted that the hot real-estate market is providing billions of additional dollars to county coffers around the state. For Los Angeles, it represents a cool $1 billion in new revenue, a nearly 10 percent increase over last year. San Bernardino County anticipates its tax receipts to double to about $320 million. However, you'll have to pardon us if we don't join the celebration just yet. The last time we saw government officials so excited was in the late 1990s after Gray Davis took... LA Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442520/posts#comment Thu, 14 Jul 2005 04:39:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1441212/posts Recently a liberal think-tank, the Public Policy Institute of California, released a study estimating that the population of California will increase from 36.5 million to around 48 million over the next 20 years. A large chunk of the new arrivals will come as the result of "international migration" and many of these future residents will lack the education skills needed to land good jobs. PPIC predicts that unless the state takes action, we face potential disaster in the areas of transportation, education and social services. While concerns for the state of the state in the next two decades should not... OC Register http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1441212/posts#comment Tue, 12 Jul 2005 16:01:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1431656/posts SACRAMENTO -- A proposed initiative ending Proposition 13 protection for commercial property would cost Los Angeles County taxpayers more than $26 million annually to implement, according to an analysis by the California Assessors' Association. The Tax Fairness Act has received almost $2.4 million from a group of influential public employee unions to circulate petitions placing the measure on the June 2006 ballot. Proponents say it would generate $2.8 billion per year in additional property tax revenues statewide. A CAA review of the proposal found it would be difficult and costly for counties to implement, with counties probably having to spend... LA Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1431656/posts#comment Mon, 27 Jun 2005 16:46:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1424082/posts Schwarzenegger blasts Democrats and labor unions. Garden Grove, Orange County -- Taxes are the real issue in November's special election, even if the question of a tax hike is nowhere to be seen on the ballot, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday. For the second day in a row, the governor virtually ignored the nuts-and- bolts details of his three proposed initiatives and focused instead on taxes, which he warned that Democratic legislators will boost every time they get a chance. Those legislators "want to raise taxes and punish all of you," he told about three dozen small business owners and... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1424082/posts#comment Thu, 16 Jun 2005 14:57:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1423696/posts Santee , San Diego County -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's special election campaign suddenly became all about the landmark Proposition 13 property tax measure Tuesday, when he warned elderly homeowners they could lose their houses to taxes if Democrats and union leaders get their way in the fall. Schwarzenegger accused Democratic legislators of sneaking around with backdoor efforts to tweak Prop. 13, the 1978 initiative that tightly limited property taxes in the state. "I tell them: 'Don't you dare touch Proposition 13, because the people of California voted to protect their homes,' " Schwarzenegger said at an event staged in the... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1423696/posts#comment Thu, 16 Jun 2005 01:25:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1422878/posts Santee, San Diego County -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's special election campaign suddenly became all about the landmark Proposition 13 property tax initiative Tuesday when he warned elderly homeowners they could lose their houses to taxes if Democrats and union leaders got their way in the fall. "They want to back us into a corner so eventually they can force us to raise taxes," Schwarzenegger told about 25 people in a back yard get-together at this town outside San Diego. He accused Democratic legislators of sneaking around with backdoor efforts to "tweak" Prop. 13, the 1978 initiative that put tight caps... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1422878/posts#comment Tue, 14 Jun 2005 23:34:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1422768/posts Santee -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger launched his official campaign Tuesday for three reform measures by visiting a retired couple who said they couldn't afford any new property taxes to cover state spending. The governor said he is routinely approached with proposals to "tweak" Proposition 13, the landmark initiative that limits property taxes. "I say, don't your dare touch Proposition 13," he told about 30 supporters and reporters in the back yard of Paul and Hermine Kendrick. Schwarzenegger is backing three ballot initiatives that call for imposing a cap on state spending, stripping lawmakers of the power to draw their own... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1422768/posts#comment Tue, 14 Jun 2005 19:49:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1417537/posts Be Wary of Proposed Split Roll Property Tax Change to Prop. 13 Written by Wayne Lusvardi Monday, June 06, 2005 - ChronWatch.com Californians should be wary of a ballot-initiative now being circulated for the June 2006 election that would split in two the State property tax protections of Proposition 13. The California Tax Fairness Act would split the property tax rolls into two separate rates – one for homeowners who would retain Proposition 13 "locked-in" tax rates; and another for commercial property owners (e.g., businesses, stores, industrial land owners) whose taxes would be based on annually reassessed property values. Proposition... ChronWatch.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1417537/posts#comment Mon, 6 Jun 2005 17:04:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1416961/posts As a longtime observer of government, I've come to realize that no matter how much public money one gives to any government agency or group of government workers, it will absolutely, positively not be enough. The unions representing the agency's workers will always cry poor-mouth, always find ways to shake down the taxpayer for more money. California's public school system consumes more than 40 percent of the budget, guaranteed by constitutional decree, and the governor's budget would increase educationspending by more than 7 percent, yet we've all witnessed the California Teachers Association and its unceasing anti-Arnold rallies and overheated "you're... OC Register http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1416961/posts#comment Sun, 5 Jun 2005 17:10:13 GMT