Free Republic

For decades, economists and analysts ignored the racial effects of how the government raises taxes. Now the introduction of race into the tax equation has blown things up a bit. This month marks the 45th anniversary of Proposition 13. Although the impact of Prop 13 on the state’s public finance landscape is far-reaching and mostly negative, the capping of property tax assessments is its signature element. It creates a property tax subsidy that increases the longer you own your home. As long as the value of your home grows faster than 2% a year, you come out ahead. As a...

The confusingly numbered “Proposition 13” on the March 3 statewide ballot will waste taxpayer dollars, needlessly increase the state’s debt burden and encourage school districts to issue more debt, raising property tax bills. Voters should reject it. Passed in a rush by the Legislature as Assembly Bill 48, this Prop. 13 is a grab-bag of goodies for the well-connected. For Wall Street bond underwriters and investors, it’s $15 billion in general obligation bonds that will cost taxpayers about $26 billion when decades of interest costs are added. The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates that Prop. 13 will cost taxpayers $740 million...

Mark Zuckerberg Funds a Plan to Turn California Into a Silicon Valley Ghetto Facebook’s founder comes after California’s middle class. Thu Feb 20, 2020 Daniel Greenfield 52 Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. Why do people live in California? The weather is nice and so are the property taxes. Unlike a lot of blue states where property taxes make home ownership all but impossible for working class and even middle class families, California has the 16th lowest property taxes in the country....

SNIP The proposal from the California Association of Realtors would expand Proposition 13, the landmark constitutional amendment passed by voters in 1978 that has kept homeowners’ property taxes artificially low over the years, even as their home values have doubled or even quadrupled. Under the initiative, homeowners who are over 55 or severely disabled would be able to keep those lower tax obligations for life, regardless of how many times they move, as long as they stay in California. SNIP

California’s initiative process has sometimes been a boon to taxpayers—think Proposition 13, which checked the uncontrolled growth of property taxes. On other occasions, however, it has yielded some mighty boondoggles. Chief among these are the “boutique initiatives” advanced by celebrities and Silicon Valley billionaires to make themselves feel good or to advance pet political causes—think Proposition 10, Hollywood director Rob Reiner’s early-childhood-development measure that created a host of busybody commissions funded by cigarette taxes. Boutique initiatives usually come with boutique prices. Among the costliest is Proposition 39, a 2012 measure that hiked corporate taxes on out-of-state businesses to “create energy...

In reverse order of probability: (5) oil severance tax, (4) Sales tax on services, (3) split property tax rolls (separate rates for homeowners than businesses), (2) cigarette tax, (1) Extension of Prop30.

Republicans, who have already blocked a Democratic super-majority in the California Senate, have also succeeded in defeating a Democratic super-majority in the Assembly.

California Democrats appear to have picked up a supermajority in both houses of the state Legislature Tuesday night, a surprise outcome that gives the party the ability to unilaterally raise taxes and leaves Republicans essentially irrelevant in Sacramento. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Democrats-get-supermajority-in-Legislature-4015861.php#ixzz2BZ1jgHgh

With the initiative process, both liberal and conservative causes could be realized. Liberal public employee unions, most notably the California Teachers Association, could lock in high levels of education spending with Proposition 98. Fed-up taxpayers could place limits on property taxes with Prop 13. Californians concerned with illegal immigration could pass Prop 187 (if only later to see it fail in court). And those Californians who saw the injustice of state-sponsored racial preferences could ban them with the California Civil Rights Initiative. But the initiative process, however satisfying it sometimes seems, has also made electoral politics seemingly less important. Whereas...

Change of ownership, key to reassessment, is cut-and-dried for homeowners but not businesses. It means a loss of tens of millions of dollars a year in tax revenue. The original deal Dell, one of the world’s richest men, agrees to pay $200 million for the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica in 2006. A few months later The deal is reshuffled to avoid a legal change in ownership by buying the company that owns the hotel, rather than the Miramar itself. Dell brings in his wife, Susan, and a third party entity controlled by investment managers Glenn Fuhrman and John Phelan....

Bloomberg News’ Christopher Palmeri recently wrote of the legacy of Proposition 13 still hovering over California. It has far too often been said that “As goes California, so goes the nation.” 33 year old Proposition 13 has become a broad generic term for tax revolt. Palmeri reports that at least 20 states have followed the 13 lemming. Tax reform was needed, but it has become apparent that 13 was not the right formula. However, there was far more to that 1978 election than Proposition 13 – its evil stepsister was Proposition 10 promoted by the banking industry. I wised up...

Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proposed dismantling California’s Proposition 13, which helped begin a nationwide anti-tax movement, in favor of a “grand bargain” that would boost levies on business property. The Democrat who leads California’s largest city called on Governor Jerry Brown not to shrink from making sweeping changes in state tax laws that Villaraigosa, 58, said could produce as much as $36 billion a year in new revenue. Villaraigosa urged the removal of Proposition 13’s limits on commercial-property assessments while retaining its cap for homes. The mayor said boosting tax revenue in the most-populous state...

(with) California’s rules, restrictions and fund commitments, there’s just not enough money for legislators to dole out where it’s needed. Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) (has) six pieces of legislation he’s proposed to fix the process... Jon Coupal, of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.,... stand AGAINST California initiative reform

Gov. Jerry Brown hinted Thursday that if the budget talks with Republicans break down, the initiative fight that would follow would not be limited to Brown's plans to raise sales, vehicle and income taxes. He said he expects labor groups to pursue changes to Proposition 13, tweaking the current caps on commercial property taxes, if no bipartisan deal can be reached. "I would expect there will be efforts to accelerate the reassessment of commercial property tax," Brown said. During his remarks to about 250 apartment owners and developers at the Moscone Center on Thursday, he acknowledged some of his failures...

The Truth on Carly's Prop 13 Claim Carly Fiorina directly attacked a cornerstone of California's conservative movement -- and one of the few institutional protections California's property owners enjoy. In short, she attacked Proposition 13. And there's proof. Below, I'm appending a rather interesting little op-ed from the March 2nd, 2000, San Jose Mercury-News. It's by one Carly Fiorina and John Doerr (then as now a venture capitalist and partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), and it enthusiastically endorses California's Proposition 26 of 2000. What was 2000's California Proposition 26? In brief, it was an attack on the provisions...

The "Blame 13" chorus is at it again. You can always count on it to sing "It's all Proposition 13's fault" during difficult economic times. The story has gone national, with columns in Time magazine and the New York Times taking shots at Proposition 13. The attacks are probably best summed up by an editorial cartoon picturing Proposition 13 as the beginning of the end for California civilization. Let's get the facts straight. Despite the cap instituted by Proposition 13, property taxes have increased dramatically in California. According to Board of Equalization data, property tax revenue has increased 800% since...

... California has a projected deficit equal to 5% of the state's gross domestic product; the federal government is running a deficit of 12% of GDP. California's total state debt is 21% of state GDP; the gross public debt of the federal government exceeds 75% of GDP. The average Californian is richer than the average American and California has more than its fair share of rich people (who pay the bulk of state and federal taxes). But Schwarzenegger and the dysfunctional legislature are hoping Washington will provide the same kind of deus ex machina rescue that it is providing to...

DAVIS — The commission charged with recommending an overhaul of California’s tax system cautiously placed a toe on the third rail of state politics on Thursday, opening discussion of possible changes in property taxes and Proposition 13. “This commission does not just want to discuss easy issues. We’re going to discuss the property tax,” said Gerald Parsky, chairman of the Commission on the 21st Century Economy. The panel, created by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders, has been asked to recommend changes in state tax policy in order to stabilize government revenues and align the tax system in an economy...

When the city of Vallejo filed for bankruptcy last year, it made national news. Among claimed reasons for this financial debacle was, as usual, Proposition 13. Same urban myth, different city. Recall that Proposition 13 was also blamed when Orange County went bankrupt, in spite of clearly documented evidence of the Orange County treasurer's criminal wrongdoing and the fact that he used an astrologer to assist him in making investments. In some quarters, it is always Proposition 13's fault when government runs short of money. Nor is Proposition 13 culpable in Vallejo's budget shortfall. During more prosperous times, Vallejo promised...

But Republicans accused Democrats of subverting the will of voters and setting a historic precedent for raising taxes in California, calling the maneuver "stunningly cynical." They warned that Democrats would soon increase other fees to make up for budget shortfalls if they are successful in their majority-vote plan. "This is a very historic day," said Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill, of Modesto. "Certainly we've been a long time coming to this point where we have reached such frustration with the laws of this state, with the people and their will as it relates to how taxes should be raised, that...