first you have to believe that CA does not have enough revenue. You do not think paying 9 % income tax (it is a graduated tax) and 7 to 8 percent sales tax should be enough. You wish to blame republicans for attempting to keep property tax revenues from the crazies in Sarcramento. do you realize how cool ca was back when it was not such a welfare state.
Look - I agree CA spends too much and needs to balance spending with revenue first. But Prop 13 is bad because the inequity it brings to the system is arbitrary. Its principals are flawed and its perpetuation is entirely justified by most voters paying less than their fair share (while only recent purchasers in the last 7 or so years pick up the brunt of expense). Why should my wealthier neighbor pay a 1/3rd the property taxes I pay? His should come up and mine should come down. With the goal to fix the inequity, you could do this without raising state revenue and I'd be satisfied. I wouldn't be surprised if recent homebuyers from the last 7 years are picking up 70% of the state's prop tax burden on 20% (or whatever #) of the real property. Again, the issue here is principal. A better solution (to avoid prop tax volatility that results in seniors getting forced out due to housing bubbles) is to limit gains in all prop taxes, but have everyone pay the same. If I have the same quality land, square footage and improvements as my neighbor, we should pay the same.
California has sales tax and income tax and some people want Prop 13 repealed....... one thing about the public sector, they never have enough money and they never will, it's not complicated. Most of our neighboring states have one or the other but they don't need both... The state needs to go completely broke so we can get the overspending socialist idiots to give up some unions, some welfare, some do-nothing employees, some school bureaucratic waste, some huge pensions, all that stuff...
Why should my wealthier neighbor pay a 1/3rd the property taxes I pay? His should come up and mine should come down. With the goal to fix the inequity, you could do this without raising state revenue and I'd be satisfied. ----------------------------------- "His should come up" Yes it will. "Mine should come down" Very little. Probably within several years, everyone's tax advantage is gone. I remember when full value assement happened in NY, yea I was jealous of the people who enjoyed a tax break by living in a home that hadn't been sold and re assesed in years. I figured one day my time will come to be when someone else would be on the unfair side of the equation. Now we are all screwed equally and fairly.
The point about prop 13 is that the pols in Sacramento couldn't/wouldn't address the problem, so the voters took it into their own hands. I'm sure there was no small amount of revenge in voting for it. It may not be the perfect solution, but it's better than the alternative.
I think I read somewhere that all of California's monetary crisis could be solved if they truly and completely legalized -- and then TAXED THE SHIT OUT OF -- marijuana. Especially seeing how it is their #1 "cash crop" as it is... Plus, it'd have the added effect of getting everyone to chill the fuck out.
Nobody with half a brain wants Prop-13 repealed other than a few left-wing fruitcakes who don't own property. If Prop-13 was repealed I think you would see another revolt. We aren't going to pay insanely high property taxes like people in Ill. and Mass. We just won't do it. Let the state fail. Who cares anyway? Police don't enforce the law here. Firefighters actually start most of the fires out here each year. Teachers are overpayed and are having sex with students. The DMV is useless and half the people here don't register their cars at all. Can them all. We're not paying an additional dime in property taxes. Now STFU and send us that check for high speed rail. You should feel honored to subsidize California with your local tax revenue.
I like prop 13. If you don't like it. Move the fuck out. It discourages people to move to Cali and buy a home.