How much property tax did you and your clients pay last year?
Roughly 70% of California homeowners pay an effective tax rate of less than 1%, as of the 2015 tax year. 40% of California homeowners pay less than 0.5%, according to Trulia.
The piece of legislation behind California homeowners’ low property tax rates is Proposition 13 (Prop 13).
Prop 13, also known as the People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation, was voted into California’s Constitution in 1978. It caps the amount property taxes may increase each year.
Prop 13 limits property taxes to 1% of the property’s assessed value. The property’s assessed value equals the property’s base value (the property’s value at the time of purchase), plus an inflation factor determined by California’s consumer price index (CPI).
Related article:
Places of the state with the highest home values have the lowest effective property tax rates. The lowest average property tax rate in 2015 — 0.42% — is in Palo Alto, where the median home value was over $2.2 million that same year, according to Trulia.
On the other hand, the highest effective tax rates are found in areas of the state with low home values. Beaumont has the highest average property tax rate — 1.37% — and here the median home value is just $260,000.
Average property tax rates are consistent with an area’s:
- home value growth;
- long-term resident population; and
- new housing construction.
Therefore, a place with rapid home price growth, a large number of long-term residents and little new home construction — like Palo Alto — will have a lower effective tax rate.
California lost over $12.5 billion in 2015 to reduced property taxes. Is this a problem? It depends on who you ask.
The pitfalls of Prop 13
For wealthy homeowners who have lived in their homes for many years, Prop 13 is terrific. In fact, the very reason for Prop 13’s creation was to protect elderly homeowners living on fixed incomes from losing their homes due to escalating property values/taxes.
Over the past few decades, Prop 13 has accomplished this — and more — at the expense of new homeowners and renters.
Some of the negative effects spread by Prop 13 include:
- reduced sales volume, as current homeowners are incentivized to stay in their current home to keep their low tax rate;
- new homebuyers — typically young families with less wealth than their more established neighbors — pay higher tax rates than their neighbors, who benefit from the same government services their property taxes support;
- local governments need to make up for the lost revenue from property taxes by requiring:
- higher income tax rates;
- higher sales taxes; and
- more business taxes, according to the Tax Foundation;
- major loopholes allow for investors and businesses to take advantage of reduced property taxes — not the law’s intention; and
- all of this lost tax revenue leads to lower quality government services.
The thing is, the law could be changed to protect older homeowners from property tax increases, while eliminating the negative effects mentioned above. For instance, the law could cover only those in a certain income tax bracket, and/or those over a certain age.
But it’s extremely unlikely the law will ever change. Once people get used to a tax break, they won’t vote to eliminate it. Further, any changes to California tax law which result in an increase in taxes (of any kind) are required to be passed by a two-thirds majority in both legislative houses. [Calif. Constitution Article XIII Sec. 3(a)]
Finally, first tuesday is in no doubt of its readership’s feelings on the matter. A recent poll showed 82% of our readers were in favor of Prop 13.
We aren’t proposing California eliminate Prop 13. But reforming it to eliminate corporate loopholes is the least California can do to regain some of the lost revenue that harms local infrastructure. For example, consider the 2013 revelations that Michael Dell was able to avoid paying over $1 million in annual property taxes on a hotel purchase by using Prop 13’s corporate loophole.
Ought California homeowners and renters continue to subsidize large corporations? Tell us what you think in the comments.
I do think Prop 13 can be improved, but I also agree with the comments about pensions. What a disaster! That’s double whammy for cities. Terrible. Cities should have not listened to their states, and just set aside money, knowing the assets were in stock market and that state was being stupid calling for a”pension holiday’.” Thanks Grey Davis. Youth really appreciate you. NOT! http://www.pensiontrcker.org. it’s gonna be rough the next 5 years as public pension payments come due.
All of you who think that California is “being ruined” and we should “jail the politicians” (!) I have a request for you: leave this State and go live in another State for awhile. Then come back to this forum and complain about how California is so horrible.
I’ve been a real estate broker since 1988. Plenty of transferees have broken down crying in my car because they were transferred here from the East, South, Midwest, Texas and who couldn’t get over how expensive housing is here and what they had to leave back home.
Interestingly, not ONE, not even ONE; wanted to move back after being in California for more than a year. Most of my clients have said to me that there is nowhere else where such a variety of cultures, opinions, religions or other differences are allowed to thrive and grow alongside each other. Sure, there is too much government intervention. Sure, there is a waste of resources that needs to be corrected. For god’s sake; California is the world’s 6th largest economy! I think we’re doing pretty darn well to weather the economic and political upheavals that have crippled many other States and even many Nations.
If you have a well researched plan to replace Prop 13 then contact your State Representative, make an in-person appointment to meet with them, take a contingent of other citizens with you and present your case so that you can get a sponsor for a Bill.
If you are not part of a viable solution to a problem then pardon me for asking you to shut up and go away…you are part of the problem!
Regarding California’s 6th largest economy. This is just part political hot air from the politicians. California has traditionally been from 10th to 8th largest economy MOSTLY due to population and partially due to technology boom in single industries like Microsoft,Google,Amazon etc. Theere is a hughe discrepancy between the quality of work and the salaries outside these industries. There is a reason why there is an exodus of both companies outside the Silico Industry and people. It’s due to higher government regulation, increased taxes on the population, and high pension expenditures within government agencies that is a burden to most state citizens. We the people that remain in California and are telling the elites of government to resign ,go to the unemployment line, or leave the state. Other states have much better economic growth than California. Citing California as a world economy is just a partial crutch for politicians to excuse how badly they are running the state. The real truth is that California is somewhere between the 14th-10th world economies in rank and it is mainly due to population size. Indonesia, Mexico,Brazil,U.K are just a few nations above California. Here is an article of many : http://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2016/jul/26/kevin-de-leon/does-california-really-have-sixth-largest-economy-/
Maybe if people like you (Simone St Clare), left California the rest of us would be able to correct the mismanagementy of the state rather than stay here and repeat the political propaganda of the state politicians
hi John Pursell,
if you want to remove the property tax then the best solution is You may need to consult a real estate expert for giving the best guidelines to solve this kind of problem by writing an authentic application with the attachment of legal taxpayer property documents which is helpful for you to approved your claim application without any restriction of government .
Thanks .
Anbody that takes any information from Trulia …is not worthy my thoughts
This is an excellent article. For all of those who seem to think that getting rid of prop 13 is a “liberal” agenda, please let me educate you. Prop 13 did not decrease your overall tax rate. The state of California immediately increased income tax and sales taxes, which actually increased our overall tax rate. The big difference is that your property taxes used to go to fund your local government. Your income and sales tax goes to the state. So now, instead of your tax dollars being controlled by your local community, Sacramento gets to decide. Some of us are so surprised to see that the classroom sizes in OC public schools are HUGE. Why is that? Because Sacramento decided that poor communities deserved smaller classroom sizes and more resources than we do. So while Compton residents enjoy classroom sizes of 20-25, OC public schools have 30-35. Don’t take my word for it…the numbers speak for themselves:
“EDUCATION COMPARISON HIGHLIGHTS
Compton spends 35.6% more per student than Laguna Niguel.
The Student Teacher Ratio is 24.1% lower in Compton than in Laguna Niguel. (lower means fewer students in each classroom).
Compton had 46.2% fewer residents who had graduated High School compared to Laguna Niguel”
Keep supporting Prop 13 and you keep supporting this redistribution of wealth. We work so hard and now our kids have to go to a school with over 30 kids per classroom. While Sacramento keeps pumping more and more money into schools where the graduation rate is abysmal. Restore local control and remove prop 13! Prop 13 sucks and it is ruining CA!
It looks like fewer students per teacher doesn’t affect graduation rates then, does it…
As for the article, “Once people get used to a tax break, they won’t vote to eliminate it.” Guess what, the government isn’t so eager to reduce taxes either. Also, don’t worry about money for the schools. We have the lottery money for that…oh wait, the government steals that money, too.
Prop 13 is not destroying California. The decision makers in Sacto and other areas of government are to blame for poor decision making, when poor decisions are made. Local governments need to find alternative ways to making money to pay for schools than taxing or getting money from the State or Federal governments. Parents should be responsible for paying for their kids food and supplies. Never understood why taxes should pay for it, not everyone has kids. And for those that do, they should be responsible for them.
Also, with the way that real estate goes up in certain areas in California, it makes sense to have Prop 13. Even when a person doesn’t live there for 30 years plus. If I buy a home for about $200K and within 5 years it is worth about $400K. When I bought the house I knew what my expenses would be, I might not be able to afford taxes on $400K and most people would not be able to have their bills doubled in 5 years when their salary remains fairly constant.
People are moving out of states that allow it to be taxed on its current value over purchase price. Mostly because, as you pointed out, by retirement age, who needs a large property tax bill when income is lower, etc. I think it is good that people know when they retire that they have their home to live in and can afford their property taxes, less displaced people.
Don’t mess with Prop 13! Keep it! This is cleverly disguised as taxing big companies, when it will be passed down to Californians. California also wants to pass another tax on gasoline. Less revenue from gasoline because we have all been forced to drive fuel economy cars has hurt government revenues from the pumps…so…guess who has to make up the difference? US! Wake up California!
Stop listening to talk radio! Read something! Prop 13 reduced property taxes that went to your LOCAL neighborhood schools and your LOCAL neighborhood government. As soon as prop 13 passed, the state of CA then IMMEDIATELY increased both your sales tax and your income tax! Sales tax and income tax goes to the STATE to distribute!!! Which means the STATE decides what to do with it instead of your NEIGHBORHOOD. So instead of your local schools and local fire firefighters being allowed to decide what to do with the tax money, the state of California now decides where to put your money! They have removed ALL local control! By supporting prop 13, you are LITERALLY supporting big government!!!!
Are you enjoying where your income taxes and sales taxes are being used in CA? Then keep supporting prop 13! The more support there is for prop 13 the more control the state has over your tax dollars!!! People need to start using their heads!!
By “supporting prop 13” I am able to continue to live in (afford) my house. Also, if there is any chance of me retiring before I die, I need to have the house paid off, with a low predictable property tax bill and a reverse mortgage giving some income. Prop 13 works for me.
Yes, the governor’s tax hike at the pump is outrageous. Any public official should concentrate on their citizens first. Our governor wants Cali to be a sanctuary state and we pay the price like it or not. The cost of the illegals has been overwhelming to this state and it is barely acknowledged. I don’t want to pay extra taxes to support illegals. There are other taxes as well that everyone has to pay to support a small percentage of people.
California boasts that it has more than enough money to support it’s millions of illegals. Just where does ALL this money come from?
I’m glad you asked GN. One of the goals of prop 13 was to take money out of the hands of local government so that the state could decide where to spend the money. Property taxes were historically used to fund local schools and local services. So the neighborhoods themselves were allowed to decide how to spend it. Once prop 13 passed, those local funds were completely decimated. So what did the state of California do? They raised income taxes and sales taxes…which go to the state! So now the state of California gets to decide where to spend your money instead of your local neighborhood. So even if your neighborhood doesn’t want to pay for undocumented immigrant programs…too bad! The state now gets your tax dollars, not your neighborhood. So the state gets to decide. They decide how much money your schools get and how you the schools have to spend it. So if they want your local schools to accommodate undocumented immigrants, then you have to. They have your community’s money and so they can tell you how to spend it. So even the most conservative and wealthy counties in CA are forced to allow their tax dollars to be spent on whatever Sacramento wants. Prop 13 handed your tax dollars to Sacramento on a silver platter. But unfortunately, the voters are simply too short-sighted to see this. If California would vote to reduce income taxes and sales taxes, and agree to increase property taxes, local control would be at least partially restored.
you must be government employee that is trying to lie and convince the people to get rid of prop 13.
always the same lie the rich benefit and the poor always suffer. Who do you thing will pay for any tax increases, the very poor that you pretending to care. it is time to get rid of as much of these Sacramento thieves and return the state to it residents.
the government success stories are overwhelming in CA, schools , roads,congested freeways and great public transportation, LMAO. sell your garbage somewhere else, we are already the highest taxed state in the country.
stop sucking California dry.
So Katy below is a part of the system that tries to scare taxpayers into the inherent unfairness of Prop 13. She perpetuates the notion that wealthy and evil landlords take advantage of the poor overworked tenant class. As a landlord myself, my days aren’t spent swilling martinis and counting my money…it’s property management, tenant complaints, leaky toilets and barking dogs. I pay mortgages, property taxes, insurance, HOA and the move in, move out of tenants at least once a year. And owning real estate is like a small business…if you do it right, eventually you’ll succeed and your efforts paid off. Unless of course you feel like Katy that thinks all benefits of your efforts should go to the State of California.
The real culprits of the massive deficits in the state is CALPERS which Katy and the author Carrie Reyes fail to acknowledge. In a Forbes Magazine article on November 26, 2016, CALPER’s retirees making $100,000 or more number 21,862 and growing which costs taxpayers close to $3 billion a year. There are currently 220,000 active California public employees making over $100,000 a year and cost taxpayers $35 billion each year. So while many in government will hide behind children, the mentally ill and the elderly as the reason we all need to pay more taxes, their real motivation is their own self interest and protecting their exorbitant benefits that none of us in the private sector can dream of, but are burden with the rest of our lives.
So Matt, do tell…Who pays for it when your tenants call animal control about a barking dog? Who pays to send their kids to school? Thats great that you have property, power to you! Great that you have a business! I am a business owner here too! But do you understand what happens when you pay exorbitant income taxes and crap in property taxes? Your income taxes go to the state. Your property taxes generally fund your local city government! So whereas before prop 13, local communities had control of their funds, now the state gets to decide how much each of us will get. Are you hearing it?? The state now gets to decide what to do with your money….huge pensions, entitlement programs, and waste waste waste. Do you think that CA just reduced property taxes and then never made up the difference? They IMMEDIATELY increased other taxes. Mostly they jacked up income taxes and sales tax. Part of their idea was that it wasn’t fair that kids in wealthy neighborhoods got a better education…so they cut property taxes, increased other taxes and viola! They can now re-distribute your tax dollars to wherever they would like! Property taxes funded local governments and local services, which generally tend to have more oversight and greater accountability. But now, your tax dollars are hard at work paying for wonderful programs such as government birdwatching and buying tvs for prisoners. Here’s a good quote from this website (https://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/Pages/GuideToCaliforniaSchoolFinanceSystem.aspx):
“Proposition 13 (1978) effectively removed school districts’ ability to exert substantial control over their revenues.”
So yes, I’m sure you are thrilled that you don’t have to pay a lot in property taxes. But if you did, what would you do? You know the answer! You’d turn the cost over to your tenants. Which would really impact the housing market. Suddenly, it wouldn’t be so much cheaper to rent than to buy! You might have to sell. But probably not, at least if you have a nice property. Many homeowners would have to sell, although there could be a slow progression of increases to help people prepare.
As I said before…this is an expensive state! Not everyone can afford to live here. Do we really think its a God given RIGHT that people should be able to afford to live here? What I find so funny is that most people who support prop 13 dislike entitlement programs. They would happily kick out any person who needs food stamps or HUD or medicaid. They say things like…
“Those people should have planned better! They shouldn’t be having so many children if they cant afford to pay! And can you believe it, they have cable tv and cellphones!??! And they want to be supported by my tax dollars?!!??”
And yet, somehow, we are ok with the cable tv and the trips to Hawaii that are so enjoyed by the beneficiaries of the largest entitlement program ever in the history of CA- Prop 13.
We have entire communities that exist on 50% of residents as transient renters. Corporations who bought up huge swaths of land now make astronomical sums and pay garbage to the state and the local government. How much do you imagine that Hilton pays in property taxes for all of the hotels out in the IE? He built them back int he 70’s and 80’s…so not much.
It pains me when people cannot understand this. The knee jerk conservative response is that taxes are bad. Sadly, it would take a few more moments to look further and realize that its not that simple. But most folks just prefer to listen to 20 minutes of talk radio and consider themselves well informed.
It’s called Communism, and it rearing it’s ugly head once again. Tax the rich, give to the poor, without a healthy private sector, there won’t be a government. Think about that one for a minute!? These tax and spend type’s are going to tax ourselves right out of business. Do you ever stop to think that the home purchaser using his own due diligence in determining the long effect cost of home ownership? Nope, the author just says tax breaks for the elderly if they are in a certain income bracket… With a liberal… It’s all about how much you make, determines your taxes… Such backwards thinking…
Prop 13 IS ruining this state. The older folks who live in homes bought in the 70’s and 80’s in Irvine, Fullerton, Huntington, Corona Del Mar, Laguna Niguel, Tustin….they pay next to nothing in property taxes while the younger folks moving into the same house next door pay a HUGE sum. Property taxes fund local services…so do the older generations stop using local services? No. they just aren’t paying for it.
As an example…take this premium piece of coastal real estate linked below…. They are selling it for 5 million and they paid $1800 in taxes for 2015. Yes…you read that right. $1800. Imagine if just this one home alone were required to pay their fair share?? Then maybe we could pay the CDM teachers more so that they wouldn’t be forced to live in Riverside!
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2324-Pacific-Dr-Corona-Del-Mar-CA-92625/25497824_zpid/
And this is fun….I rented this house linked below a very long time ago. Its a beautiful home in Corona Del Mar. They pay $1400 a YEAR in property taxes!!! Even 20 years ago, the rent was a fortune! Please don’t take my word for it….review their property tax history! They pay less per year than I paid for 15 days of rent 20 years ago:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/421-Poppy-Ave-Corona-Del-Mar-CA-92625/25498500_zpid/
So the huge sums of rent they collect line their pockets and they pay income tax to the state…but how much of that comes back to the community? VERY little.
These are two examples, but this type of garbage is what exists in literally half of the coastal real estate market! Look for yourselves! Zoom in on Zillow. Any home in CDM that shows as less than 2 million hasn’t been sold in a very long time. So are these all grandma and grandpa living there? NO. These are RENTALS that house young families! Some of them were inherited. So the owners pay CRAP in property taxes but charge premium rents! So who pays for those renters kids to go to school? Who pays for their police and fire service? Not the renters…the renters’ money goes to the wealthy owners and then the owners may or may not pay income tax on it. But that does not help the local public services. So who pays for all of the services used by those renting families? The sucker next door who pays his fair share in property taxes! And even if the original owner does still live there….who does she call when there’s a crack in the sidewalk outside or when her kitty gets stuck in a tree? We have elderly neighbors that seem to require fire trucks ever other day!! But who pays for it? Not them!
Bottom line: to run an expensive state like California, we need property taxes and we need the older generation to downsize or move out of state if they can’t afford their taxes. Unless they would like to start paying out of pocket for every time they utilize police and fire services? Or pay out of pocket for the cost of their tenant’s use of services?
I have family in New York and I can tell you that the only way the NY suburbs survive is that Grandma and Grandpa eventually decide to move to Florida or to downside because their homes are taxed in accordance with current market value of the home. Why is Irvine alone paying 20% of the cost of fire services in the OC? Why are the Irvine schools so good? Younger buyers=Property taxation at current standards. So what happens to places like Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Laguna Niguel where so many of the homes being held for investment or used as income property? Schools either go in the toilet or teachers have to commute for an hour to drive to work every morning. I know a teacher in OC who commutes from Temecula! Is this the value we have for our teachers? For shame!!
Here in California, many people own a number of multi-generational inherited homes for which they pay next to nothing. I’m not saying that higher property taxes are generally a good thing. But I am saying that the state needs to even the playing field. It can’t be that the younger generations continue to pay the majority of the property taxes. Either reduce property taxes for all of us, or at least make them equivalent so that next door neighbors aren’t paying such wildly different amounts for the same homes. I can’t tell you how painful it is to see that the mortgage on the house I want will include an extra thousand a month in property taxes while the next door neighbors who bought in the 80’s pay $50 a month in property taxes. That is so very unfair and it hamstrings the younger generation.
Are you kidding me??? Prop 13 is ruining the state? How about the liberal politicians running this state that never met a tax they didn’t like? How about the politicians that do not know how to work within a budget? How about the exorbitant pensions paid to government workers? How about the outrageous spending on social programs that support the illegals and the lazy people who do not want to work? The list goes on….. The bottom line is California does not know how to live within its means. We are tired of the children being used as pawns for the next tax scheme. Schools have had more dollars per pupil than ever and they are still claiming they need more. We are done!!!!!
I am an older person who has purchased a home in the last couple of years. Not everyone in California who is older is paying next to nothing in taxes. Local governments make choices on how to run their communities. There is no reason that OC could not have lower cost housing for their teachers, police, etc. so that those career populations do not have to travel long distances to/from work. Communities need to be inventive. Taxes are not the only way for cities to make money. Also, when a home sells, let’s say it cost $20K in the 1970’s and is now worth $750K. Those buyers can afford the $750K or they would not be able to buy it. All of that should be considered by the buyers and/or their banks.
The Orange County Register featured an article recently about this to commemorate the passing of this proposition. The position of the author of that article is completely the opposite of Carrie’s and it explains in detail how we are already taxed at higher rates than many other states. Prop 13 IS A GOOD THING for Californians Carrie. You still have a lot to learn in my humble opinion. It is good to know though the views of some of First Tuesday’s textbook authors to keep in mind when ordering continuing education courses, if we decide to keep ordering from you.
Stop listening to talk radio! Read something! Prop 13 reduced property taxes that went to your LOCAL neighborhood schools and your LOCAL neighborhood government. As soon as prop 13 passed, the state of CA then IMMEDIATELY increased both your sales tax and your income tax! Sales tax and income tax goes to the STATE to distribute!!! Which means the STATE decides what to do with it instead of your NEIGHBORHOOD. So instead of your local schools and local firefighters being allowed to decide what to do with the tax money, the state of California now decides where to put your money! They have removed ALL local control! By supporting prop 13, you are LITERALLY supporting big government!!!!
Are you enjoying where your income taxes and sales taxes are being used in CA? Then keep supporting prop 13! The more support there is for prop 13 the more control the state has over your tax dollars!!! People need to start using their heads!!
Katy, Prop 13 or, no California will continue to tax wherever possible. Tax and spend. Or, tax and waste on BS like bullet trains, liking politician and friends pockets, buying democrat votes etc. CA is far too far left to do anything that would conserve taxpayer money.
Which is why we should reduce income taxes and increase property taxes. The majority of property taxes stay local, where communities can decide how to spend them. Public schools in OC used to be excellent and had relatively small classroom sizes. Now, our taxes go to the state and the state can
“even the playing field” by allotting more tax dollars to poor communities. This is why the average classroom size in public schools in Compton (22-25) is the FAR less than the average classroom size in Laguna Niguel (30-35). Sacramento decided that the kids in Compton needed smaller classooms more than kids in O.C.. It used to be the opposite. Our property taxes paid for our schools and so here in the OC, public schools were awesome and had small classroom sizes because our properties are expensive. And we could have oversight of how those property taxes were used because local governments are easier to access and are more accountable. Compton schools used to be crowded and underfunded because they didn’t have the property taxes to make it better.
But I say, screw that!! Give us back our income taxes, get rid of prop 13 and restore our local control! Use cigarette taxes and lottery money for underfunded schools! Stop gouging our income taxes to pay for programs in poor communities over which we have no oversight!
YES. Prop 13 has provided enormous tax relief to commercial property owners. Anyone who did not buy in the 1970s-1990s are stuck picking up the tab. Prop 13 relies on a formula written on a kitchen table in the mid 1970s. It’s time to bring that formula back to a reasonable distribution of taxes. In virtually every county in the state, the share
of the property tax borne by residential property has increased since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, while the share of the property tax borne by non-residential
property has decreased. I pay 10,000K/year, my neighbor pays 1,800/yr. That’s broken.
.
That’s it exactly!
I thought you said that more money was going to Compton than to Laguna Niguel, so we should change Prop 13? Then you said more money should go to poor people? Make up your mind, commie. Or, did they not teach logic at your lib school?
No, that is not a definition of broken. What you omit is that your neighbor is at an age nearing the end of their independent living. Someday, your neighbor will be paying $100K tax bill while you are still paying $10K or $12K. Then you won’t think its broken any more. A disparity is not broken or unjust providing that everyone has an equal opportunity to benefit.
Why do you identify your neighbor’s low tax bill as the problem? The real problem is your high tax bill. Is government providing you $10K per year in value? What have you done about that besides just fork over your money? In the beginning of my RE career, I did something about it. I hustled donation for Jarvis before anyone knew about the movement. Are you so naive as to think your tax bill would get reduced if your neighbor’s bill were increased? Very often, such properties are sold and reassessed at current value. I never heard of neighbors getting a reduction when that happens.
Wake up. Government is just men and women forcing us to give them our money. Anarchists do believe in rules. They just don’t believe in rulers.
I couldn’t agree more, well said!
Prop 13 reduced property taxes but it absolutely did NOT reduce the amount that Californians are being taxed. Prop 13 reduced property taxes that went to your LOCAL neighborhood schools and your LOCAL neighborhood government. As soon as prop 13 passed, the state of CA then IMMEDIATELY increased both your sales tax and your income tax! Sales tax and income tax goes to the STATE to distribute!!! Which means the STATE decides what to do with it instead of your NEIGHBORHOOD. So instead of your local schools and local firefighters being allowed to decide what to do with the tax money, the state of California now decides where to put your money! They have removed ALL local control! By supporting prop 13, you are LITERALLY supporting big government!!!!
Are you enjoying where your income taxes and sales taxes are being used in CA? Then keep supporting prop 13! The more support there is for prop 13 the more control the state has over your tax dollars!!! People need to start using their heads!!
I find it so interesting how people who support prop 13 don’t generally support entitlement programs. You say, “your neighbor is at an age nearing the end of their independent living.” Now that is interesting! So do you also support giving money and tax breaks to moms who have deadbeat husbands? What about children whose parents were deported…they too are not able to live independently! And what about people that didn’t get health insurance and get sick? They need your help too! Are you okay with your tax dollars supporting them?
It’s not a case of not enough tax revenue, it’s a case of not controlling spending. When prop 13 passed, the news leaked out about 2 months before the election that LA county had already printed up new tax bills doubling everyone’s property taxes. The firestorm caught on and prop 13 couldn’t be stopped. This “fair share” nonsense aside, it’s a simple economic choice — if you don’t want to pay higher property taxes, stay in your house. Do you really think that everyone would save money if prop 13 were eliminated? Or would everyone’s property taxes skyrocket including the taxes of the new home buyers that are complaining about “unfairness”? Prop 13 in the view of many is one of the best things to ever happen to the California real estate industry. Of course the folks that like the idea of tax & spend without any accountability have a different view — of course — the way you teach economics to the government isn’t to lecture them on cutting back spending — it’s cut the tax inflow which is what prop 13 did.
Raise taxes on the business, the business raises prices to the consumer. It’s always been that way and always will be.
Can you provide Proof? I sell commercial real estate and sales are as strong as ever. Property ownership turns over more often than you think and those properties are assessed at higher rates and the result an increase in tax revenue. Your opinion without facts is just an opinion and means nothing.
Proper 13 is a very , very GOOD thing. The more money in the hands of anyone, and this includes Sacramento, the more ways one will find to spend it, which means to waste it. (High Speed Train) Really. For how many years has property prices risen , doubled and tripled in California ? Real property is taxed at a certain rate based on the current sales price, when sold. which means more actual dollars to government, twice a year… not at 1978 real estate pricing. It is NO ones concern if people became wealthy over time, or did not,. Paying fair share of taxes has everything to do with Income Tax codes, Not the Tax one pays for property. We the people pay taxes on much more than just property tax. When we add a room onto our homes, the property is reaccessed , thus more tax dollars into the system. If Prop 13 is altered one bit, many people will have less money to help the economy i.e. lease of buy new cars, furniture, gas, pay for trips and the list goes on, and on. Jim