CA: Property tax shift proposed (Budget Preview)

Sac Bee ^ | 1/9/04 | John Hill

[NormsRevenge]

The budget proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today will take $1.3 billion of property tax from local governments to offset the state's obligation to pay for schools, sources said Thursday.

The proposal would closely resemble the property tax shift that occurred in the early 1990s and has been a sore point in the state's relationship with local governments ever since.

[NormsRevenge]

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[HamiltonJay]

Property taxes in California are a joke.... and a big part of why their schools are consistenly ranked near the bottom.... 1200 a year in taxes on a 500k house... yea.... you're going to have a kick ass school district that way.. NOT.

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[So Cal Rocket]

1200 a year in taxes on a 500k house...

If I bought a house today for $500K, the annual property taxes would be a minimum of $5,000 year + additional fees to pay off state and local bonds and other assessments.

[Fishing-guy]

Yep, Proposition 13 really hurts the State revenue. However, if you bought your house before the late 70's, you are doing quite well.

California also has to provide all these services for illegals, and that got to hurt.

[truth_seeker]

"Property taxes in California are a joke.... and a big part of why their schools are consistenly ranked near the bottom.... 1200 a year in taxes on a 500k house... yea.... you're going to have a kick ass school district that way.. NOT."

You quite obviously don't know what you are talking about. Are you a big Warren Buffet fan?

California per capita education spending is fairly high, and is NOT derived solely from property taxes.

Low performance is due at least partly to non-English school age attendees. I dare not call them "students" because the commitment to education by them and their families is questionable, no matter how much is spent to babysit them, before prison or babies or becoming gardeners or crack dealers.

According to you, owners of $500k homes should pay MORE, to educate the offspring of ilegal immigrants? Please clarify.

[HamiltonJay]

hahah, well was looking at houses in 500k range in Sf Bay area, annual property taxes were 1200 a year... now if I had a 500k house here, my property taxes would be roughly 12,500 a year at least.... SO your 5k is still well underfunded.

Cali's property tax system is a joke.. Prop 13 flushed an already failing school system even further into hell. I have a friend who moved from Cali to Missouri! Missouri! and it took her over a year of hard hard hard work to catch up with MISSOURI in grade school when she moved as a kid....

Cali's an absolute mess.

[HamiltonJay]

Property taxes are levied against the value of a house... if a houses value goes up 20% but taxes are capped at 2%, doesn't take too long until inflation outpases tax increases and you wind up underfunded...

Lived in Cali for a year, yes, its taxed like crazy, but your schools are a JOKE. And its not just non english speakers its a flat out busted system.. I was in one of the top ranked school districts in the state and it couldn't hold a candle to the average school in most places.

[balrog666]

California spends $7500 per pupil on a consistantly underperforming, thoroughly unionized, and over-politicized educational system. How much do you think it should be?

[So Cal Rocket]

You're only looking at one source of "revenue" for the state (prop tax). The total "revenue" stream for the State of California has MORE than kept up with inflation + population increase. I offer these numbers over the past 5 years:

Increase in inflation + increase in population = 20%
Increase in State "Revenue" = 25%
Increase in State Spending = 43%.

If the bozo's in Sacramento had only increased their spending by the amount of increase in inflation + population, California would be sitting on a huge Surplus right now. Californian's are NOT undertaxed.

[agarrett]

Property taxes are levied against the value of a house... if a houses value goes up 20% but taxes are capped at 2%, doesn't take too long until inflation outpases tax increases and you wind up underfunded...

  True, but only if you look at property taxes in isolation. California as a whole is greatly overtaxes - it's just that we're taxed on things other than property (I'm in California, by the way.) Our sales tax, to take one example, is one of the highest in the nation, and there are dreadfully few things that are exempt from it. State income tax, gas tax, etc. - all well above national average. Yes, we are way below average on our property tax, but don't change that unless it's part of reforming everything else also. As it stands, we are very heavily taxes in total.

  Now, our school systems are miserable. I have some nieces in the schools here, and I think it's terrible how little they learn. My wife teaches at a private school - I think her lessons are far from challenging, but it's so far above what you can get in public schools that parents compete to get their kids in her class. However, I'm not convinced money is the root of the problem...

  A friend of my wife was teaching at the same school she was. This friend took the teacher certification, and moved into the public schools. Her salary increased dramatically (just short of doubled.) She is working on qualifying in Spanish, at which point she'll get another astronomical jump in salary. Her school is, further, overwhelmed with administrators - she claims there's 1 administrator per teacher, which I hope is exaggeration. Still, there's a lot.

  But, she has often had to pay to photocopy school books because they don't actually have enough to give to all the students.

  I think funding is not as great a problem as how that funding is being spent.

Drew Garrett

[HamiltonJay]

Balrog, 7500 dollars in California equates after adjusting for cost differences to maybe 4-5k per pupil in most of the rest of the nation, and you will see, if you bother looking it up, that most states spend not only MORE REAL DOLLARS, but far more adjusted for cost of living per pupil on education....

Cali is a joke, only people who can dillude themselves into thinking California Public schools are good, by and large, are people who have never seen good schools.

[balrog666]

7500 dollars in California equates after adjusting for cost differences to maybe 4-5k per pupil in most of the rest of the nation, and

So what? Practically every study so far has shown that flushing more money down the educational drain DOESN'T produce a better education for the students.

you will see, if you bother looking it up, that most states spend not only MORE REAL DOLLARS, but far more adjusted for cost of living per pupil on education....

Again, so what? Most of them are doing a lousy job too, or haven't you noticed that? It's not spending that's out-of-whack, it's bullsh!t "Colleges of Education", unionized teachers, and pandering politicians spending other people's money.

Abolish government schools and the taxes that support them!

[Myrddin]

Prop 13 was passed because the politicians were taxing senior citizens right out of their homes. The rates just kept climbing and forced people with free and clear property titles and fixed incomes to sell because of enormous property tax assessments. The tax is based on the assessed value at the time of purchase. If you buy a property for $500K now, you will be assessed 1% annually...not $1,200. You are probably looking at the historical tax applied to the property you cited. That is not the tax that will be assessed to a new buyer.

[.38sw]

Oh, yeah, property taxes are joke. Ha ha. I'm laughing so hard I'm crying twice a year when I write that check to the county assessor. We pay taxes on the assessed value of the house at the time of purchase. We bought the place a year and a half ago, and we live in the San Francisco bay area, which has some of the highest real estate prices in the country. True, people who bought their homes long ago pay a much lower tax, but homes are turning over all the time, and new owners are paying the higher assessed rates. And when the median home price in my county is over $400,000, I'm sure that there is plenty of green rolling in.

[truth_seeker]

"Lived in Cali for a year, yes, its taxed like crazy, but your schools are a JOKE. And its not just non english speakers its a flat out busted system.. I was in one of the top ranked school districts in the state and it couldn't hold a candle to the average school in most places."

Do you speak from experience as a homeowner/property-taxpayer and parent of school children, in California (for one year) and elsewhere?

Or are you just making general statements, based on heresay, etc.

[Lizavetta]

... if a houses value goes up 20% but taxes are capped at 2%, doesn't take too long until inflation outpases tax increases and you wind up underfunded...

I disagree with your premise that a school's legitimate need for funds is somehow connected to property values.

Schools are 'underfunded' because the schools DO NOT SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WHAT THEY SHOULD. It goes to new multi-purpose rooms, more administrators, more aides to administrators, travel junkets for union members, etc. etc. This will not change no matter how much you give them. They are corrupt to the core and they waste waste waste. Go read John Taylor Gatto's on the parasitic industries that feed on education dollars.

Washington DC students are getting over $10K per student and the quality of their schools is crap. And the money spent on 'educating' Mexican citizens is helping to bankrupt the system.

[HamiltonJay]

I see, so California being among the worst of the worst has nothing to do with the fact its spends near the bottom per student.... interesting... What a dillusional world you live in.