I hate Prop 13

[nini]

I can afford a new mortgage to move but I can't afford the huge freaking property taxes to go with it. I'm not happy that neighbors are paying 250 dollars a year on a property EXACTLY like mine and I have to put out over 2500 - and I'm LUCKY it's even that low compared to what some friends are paying.


You'd think with the boom in real estate prices now that these long term homeowners would have enough freaking equity to handle paying a fair tax so I don't have to cover them

Jesus Christ on popsicle stick.. Do I sound like a repuke? I certainly don't want to kick grandma out of her house if she can't afford the higher taxes and don't expect anyone to suffer, but I don't wanna be kept out of moving into another place myself because mine are so high. There's got to be a better way!

:cry: :cry:

ok.. I feel better now. :-)

[AlCzervik]

1. I know the feeling

God forbid you ever speak evil of prop 13, the old folks will come and get you. We pay $3600 this year. We can thank Howard Jarvis and the other asshole republicans for this.

[nini]

2. and the old folks just can't understand why we don't save money

.. like they did.

:eyes:

[bluestateguy]

3. I don't

I am a native Californian and I can tell you, this is not something you want to mess with in California politics. My parents, both liberal Democrats who never voted Republican in their adult lives, voted for Prop. 13. Their property taxes were just out of control on our small house. My parents did not make a lot of money at the time either. They did better in the 80's, but went through several layoffs in the late 80's and early 90's. Then my father had to go on disability in 1993. Had Prop 13 not passed, their property taxes would have gone out of control, and they likely would have lost the house as a result of their job losses.

Speak ill of Prop 13? You might as well speak ill of the Pope in Vatican City.

[nini]

4. My parents voted no.. but I remember that election well.

I'm sure it helped many people who struggled but I believe anyone that struggles should be helped out and shouldn't lose their homes anyway (which I why I am a democrat :-) .. but my point is they need to be balanced.

I shouldn't have to pay more than someone living in the same exact type home.. we receive the same services from the state and county and should pay the same for them.


Actually, most people I know want this changed but until the long time homeowners die off.. I know this will be a tough fight which is why I believe any retired or low income people should have a deal worked out that their share is paid from equity in the estate of their home after they die.

I guess I'm not in favor of a blanket change that may hurt some, but conditional changes that will level the field over time - the very least of which could be only including home owners and NOT corporations - that change alone would help us little homeowners out.

[question everything]

6. Prop. 13 just took care of one issue

of the increase in property taxes that would have forced people to move out of their homes (and then, what?)

The question should be: why should property taxes fund local governments? And, yes, many of us have been through layoffs when most of our expenses were reduced, including our income taxes, but not property taxes which would increase. The source for this route comes from Colonial times, when owning property was the only way to measure a person's ability to pay taxes.

Also, why should only property owners be taxed to fund local governments? Yes, I know, renters pay too, through their rental expenses but they have no say in, for example, special assessments.

It would make more sense to fund local government through supplements for income tax. Say a city needs, what $10 million to operate. It can then ask the Franchise Tax Board in Sacramento to tax more all the tax payers living in that city. At least, with income tax, the supplement would be progressive, and when one's income is reduced, so will be the supplemental one. And, at least, if most of the voters of that city think that it can run with only $7 million, they can vote on this.

The Wall Street Journal today had a page one story about the huge rises in property taxes in many places, including this paragraph:

For many homeowners, the increases have eaten into benefits they gained from President Bush's cuts in federal income taxes. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com Inc., a research firm in West Chester, Pa., estimates that nearly a fifth of the income-tax benefit Americans are receiving from federal tax cuts this year is going to pay for higher property taxes. Mr. Zandi says he expects property taxes to continue rising "very rapidly."

[slackmaster]

7. In general the older people get the more they like Prop. 13

The value of my home has more than tripled in nine years. Prop. 13's 2% limit on annual increases of assessed value is saving me several dollars per day in property tax. It's not my fault the housing market in my neighborhood has gone insane. Market prices have gone up much faster than I expected. I bought my home to live in, not as a business or speculative investment.

http://www.boe.ca.gov/proptaxes/pdf/pub29.pdf

JADP - My mom bought a house in 1965 that QUINTUPLED in value by 1978, the year Prop. 13 was voted in. She also sold the place that year. Although before 13 there was supposed to be an average 5 year interval between reassessments, her property got hit for a tax increase every single year she owned that house. The San Diego County assessor's behavior was scandalous, and statewide reaction to that kind of abuse led to Prop. 13. If the counties had abided by the existing law it might never have passed.

Mom's former house sold in January 2004 for $995,000. The present assessed value is $583,664. It's no nicer of a place to live than it was in the '60s and '70s but it's a lot less affordable (i.e. affordable to a lot fewer people) if you compare housing prices to income levels.

County assessors and municipalities try to screw with homeowners all the time. Here in San Diego a few years ago a proposal was floated to base the trash collection assessment on the width of your lot, i.e. how many linear feet of curb easement the city has. That would have hit me hard because my lot is wide and shallow. Someone with a narrow, deep lot of the same size would have paid less for the exact same services. Corner lot owners would have taken it in the shorts.

[Momgonepostal]

5. I was very young when prop 13 passed so I don't get

all the ins and outs of the law or exactly what you mean.

How would it help you if your neighbors paid more property taxes?

My mom is a long term home owner and pays about $500/year for a 3 bed. 2 bath house is a so-so area. If someone bought the house next door for full market value, their taxes would be about $2600. Mom is also retirement age and wants to retire but cannot afford to. I can guarantee if a candidate suggested my mom should pay new home tax rates on her house, she would go ballistic and mobilize a herd of old people to trample said candidate to death. A candidate may as well suggest doing away with social security and medicare too...lol

on edit: I meant to add this. How is all that equity supposed to help someone on a fixed income? It's not like most of them would qualify for much of a mortgage.

[Book Lover]

8. There are other ways of doing

what Prop 13 does, and they don't create the disparity we see. Where my father lives, senior citizens pay special property tax rates based on the length of time the home has been owned and the owners' income level.