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Have California Voters Finally Had Enough of Prop 13?


Stashed in: Awesome, California

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Demographic change is here, and California could be the first state to overturn a landmark "small government" law which ossified into an "rich, old and white against everyone else" form of taxation.

My first reaction as some who does not own land is "yes, please overturn prop 13!"

But I'm sure that the consequences of overturning prop 13 are worse than I think.

Why are you sure? It's a massive NEVER-ENDING wealth transfer from new ventures and residential buyers to old corporations and landowners AND THEIR HEIRS. Why would you want to stack the deck in favor of older enterprises, inherited wealth, and ever-increasing inequality? The stated goal of the measure was always to force the state to spend less on infrastructure, schools, and social services... and guess what, that actually happened. Or in cases where the spending could not be cut, the state was forced to go out and borrow money instead of taxing the wealthy right here.

I think Adam is right.  Applying this to residential homeowners would hurt every home owner especially elderly home owners and renters.  I was told once that the total cost of a home is determined by affordability when you factor in loan payments, insurance, and taxes.  Affordability won't go up with higher taxes, so something would have to go down.  Lower home values could hurt any current homeowner that relies/relied on equity.  As for applying it to commercial properties, I find it very unlikely that the extra costs won't be passed on to consumers.  

They're not necessarily talking about increasing the residential property tax, although they might close the inheritance loopholes. They're talking mostly about taxing business properties like Disneyland at something higher than the 1978 rate.

I see. Businesses try to lump business property tax and residential property tax together.

But they actually could be two different things. And probably should be.

.be

1 in 8 students in America is educated in California public schools?! Oh my. 

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