I think a big problem is that when you sell your home, the prospective buyer will face much higher taxes.
“I think a big problem is that when you sell your home, the prospective buyer will face much higher taxes.”
That is definitely THE problem with Prop 13. But the alternative was what prompted it in the first place. We had a process where one year the County Assessors were raising the assessed valuation on all properties to reflect the fair market value which resulted in markedly increase tax revenues. Then the State would remove some of it’s school support funding taking advantage of the fact that the local property tax payer was picking up more of the school cost tab. So the next year, the schools ( and other agencies too, but mostly schools) would increase their tax RATES to recoup the loss in State provided revenue. We were young and had just purchased our first home for $30,000. The first year property taxes were $600.00. In three years time, thanks to this leapfrog process, our taxes were $2,000.00. The prospect of this continuing unabated for us (and everyone else who owned property) led to a tax revolt and Prop 13. So no, it isn’t a good system, but it’s held up for more than 40 years , and it kept California’s citizens in their homes and forced the State to do some things with respect to mitigating school funding.
Right now, the RATS want to try and separate business property from Prop 13’s restrictions. We have commercial property and we are including in our leases provisions for the tenants sharing property tax increases that might come if the RATs are successful. A lot of commercial property owners are going to triple net leases where tenants share directly in all operating costs, but they have made the change because of concerns about Prop 13 going away.