Prop 13 was the best thing that ever happened to CA. Every time a property sells it gets gets reassessed...at a higher rate of course.
“Every time a property sells it gets gets reassessed...at a higher rate of course.”
I had a friend who lived near Sacramento explain the problem with the property tax cap to me in simple terms: If you live in an area with capped taxes, the only way to increaserevenue beyond that is to sucker new buyers into the neighborhood. The “suckers”, rather than buy into an area where their taxes will be double that of the “established” folks, simply band together and set up a new town a few miles down the road (as there is no shortage of land in CA). This leaves the original neighborhood to shrivel on the vine, as the tax cap makes services unaffordable at the lower tax rate (at least at the level the “established” people want); as those people die off the town does, too. Twenty years later the cycle repeats at the “new town”, with people buying or building even further out from the original town.
BTW, this will be happening now in NJ since Gov. Christie capped our taxes; they can increase 2%, while teachers are still being given raises of 4% - hence the MASSIVE police layoffs (their union isn’t as strong). While I know it is not a long-term solution, the tax cap is the only way for many of us to continue to stay in our homes - we didn’t “overpay” for them, but have been RAPED with property tax increases. This hasn’t just driven people & businesses out of NJ; it has made our homes impossible to sell. That is why Christie would win re-election until the end of his life if he could - he is NJ’s only hope.