Reply #13: Prop 13 was a red herring to remove corporate property taxes and vacation home taxes on the wealthy. [View All]

[haele]

Prop 13 needs to be broken up. The dirty little secret about Prop 13 is that it wasn't passed to help poor old Granny keep her home, it was passed to benefit out of state-based corporations that were buying cheap lots and old ranch or farm parcels to help them develop business parks and housing projects without paying an equitable tax increase for improvements on those property simply by creating a subsidiary corporate mail-drop entity in the State to qualify under Prop 13.
Prop 13 can remain as it is to protect primary residences with little impact on the state revenues one way or another, and a different tax structure can be placed on Corporate business properties and second or part-time homes that can make a significant difference. You shouldn't be able to use Prop 13 to lock down property taxes on a massive parking lot or on a corporate park "redevelopment" that's been going nowhere for 20 years thats also being used as a business write-off. Out of state property owners shouldn't be able to profit under Prop 13, and that's what they are currently doing
Ranches and Farms should also have their own category, due to the actual footprint necessary to run their businesses, and the identification of a private owner of record to winnow out the Corporate Farms from family farms be a critical factor in identifying what can fall under Prop 13 and what can't.

We in California need also to get a handle on our real estate and building development bubbles and how property values are assessed on the market. We've been royally screwed over the past 50 years. The average Californian really can't afford their homes at the values the banks are putting on them, even if there was some BS algorithm that indicated the property owner could could, effectively creating debt slavery to whomever holds the note on the house. The only Californians who aren't dependant on a stable income and the good graces of a bank are the ones who own their house free and clear.

More Californian residents are being hurt by Prop 13 as it is now than are being helped by it. It needs to be modified.

Haele