“The only downsides to Poizner is that he really isn’t all that conservative, but neither is Meg. Also, he didn’t always prostrate himself in front of Jarvis and Prop 13.
Prop 13 might have started out as a good idea, but the Democrats have so twisted the tax code at the state and local levels that Prop 13 is now doing almost the exact opposite of what was intended: it is not lowering the overall tax burden of Californians, and it is just making the tax code more complex and favorable to special interests.”
Prop. 13 does what it was intended to do. No more and no less.
Prop. 13 requires a 2/3 vote in the legislature, to raise taxes.
That fact alone has preented tax increases in recent years.
And Poizner is not strongly opposed to getting rid of that.
Your remarks reveal you don’t know much about history.
Jarvis KNEW governments will spend all the money they cn get, so you must try to restrict the amount they can get. Plain and simple.
What has happened in the mean time is that the vast majority of the benefits of Prop 13 now go to businesses who turnover their property even less often than seniors. Especially since they have come up with clever loopholes that allow them to transfer the property to new owners without it being registered as a property transfer requiring a reappraisal.
Also, in the mean time the Democrats have been busy rewriting the tax laws so that state taxes go to localities and local taxes go to the state. Likewise for fees. It has become a total fustercluck.
It is no coincidence that 1/3 + 1 of the legislators are Republican. If the 2/3rd's requirement hadn't been stuck in with the rest of Prop 13 then 1/2 + 1 of the legislators would be Republican. That is because as soon as the Democrats had started raising taxes as much as they wanted, they would have been ousted by sensible citizens.
The 2/3rd requirement sounds like a good idea in the short run, but how has it helped over the long run?
Do you really believe that our state taxes would have been raised to 20-30% to pay for all the bloated government salaries and pensions with no response from the electorate?
Some Californians are truly stupid and/or selfish, but the majority are still reasonable.
California is going down the tube partly because of all of the Propositions that require certain funds be spent on certain programs, and tie the hands of the legislators so they can't respond, and don't have to take responsibility for, what's going on.
We pass laws to put more people in jail, but don't spend the money necessary to build sufficient space.
We get all gooey-eyed over police and firemen and give them a blank check, then wonder why we're billions in debt.
We have relatively lower property taxes, but our sales tax is now at or above 10%.
Republicans may think they're being smart by opposing this tax increase over here, or that bond issue over there. In the end its just a pointless game of whack-a-mole as the bureaucrats and Democrats find more ways to increase fees and adjust our taxes upwards.
And over time as Republicans lower taxes and regulations for particular cities, more and more power is ceded to the state. Good going!
The only solution is good government where we pay our bills as we go. Hike my taxes to 50% to fully fund all the promises we made, or break those promises now. The people need to feel the pain if they are ever going to be disabused of the notion that government services can be had for free.