Team Up! Former U.S. Secretary of State, George P. Shultz ( of Bechtel ) will be joining the Schwarzenegger gubernatorial campaign as a co-chair of an Economic Recovery Council. Note: Warren Buffet made some comments the other day that implied that Property Taxes should be raised in California. Hmmmm.... That's no going to fly at all with the voters! Keeping with the Hollywood theme, actor Rob Lowe is rumored to be the next hire for the Schwarzenegger campaign.
Isn't Rob Lowe a Democrat? I seem to remember he was campaigning for them when he was caught with those two hot teenage girls.... now that I think of it, every Democrat is a sex maniac, every Republican has ties to the CIA. I bet every Green smokes pot and likes the Grateful Dead, too. Take your pick of what you want to see on the news and vote accordingly.
I might be wrong on this but I believe that California passed a law sometime time back prohibiting any further increases in property taxes since they do have by far the highest property taxes in the country. Maybe a resident of the state could expand on this.
Howard Jarvis was the man behind the initiative, which was passed 25 years ago. In fact, it's not just a property tax law, it's an icon. At the time, the State was sitting on a budget SURPLUS of $6 Billion. This led many voters to conclude that property taxes could be rolled back without severe cuts to governement services. With housing prices rising rapily in the 5 years preceeding the passing of Prop. 13 ( back in 1978 ), taxpayers were tired of seeing jumps of 40 to 60 percent ( which were quite common ) in their tax bills due to assessors diligent in booking changes in value. Prop. 13 passed by an overhwhelming margin - - 65% to 35%. And yes, it is still in effect today.
Prop. 13 only allows a maximum increase of just 2% per year in property taxes. By the way, Arnold's campaign is now tripping ALL over themselves . . . trying to distance themselves from the Anti-Prop. 13 comments made by Warren Buffet the other day, who believe that Prop. 13 should be abolished. If that isn't a "death-knell" to amny Republican running for office in the State, I don't know what is! http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/08/16/MN263845.DTL
FWIW-I heard someone here in Texas say that killing Prop 13 in California has about as much chance as outlawing guns in Texas Any politician advocating these positions will lose. DS