patrick.net

Patrick says

Sure, that's how Prop 13 was sold to the public, and it's a fine idea to protect POOR old people.

Florida has all types of discounts or breaks for property tax.

One is homestead exemption where you get $50,000 off the assessed value of your home.

For the panhandle of Florida this is worthwhile since the average assessed value of a housing unit is about $150,000.

And the average mil rate is 8 mils (i.e., property tax of $1600 annually for a $200,000 home) in Florida panhandle.

For Florida senior citizens who earn less than $37,000 a year, there is a major break off the taxes that usually yields about a 50% discount.

I believe Santa Clara County has a deal where old people can have the county put a lien on their house for the taxes owed. The lien isn't collected until the old person dies (or maybe it is when they move out of their house?). That seems like a great solution to keeping the old people in their homes. If their home didn't increase much in the last 40 years, then even without Prop 13 their taxes wouldn't be very much. If their home price zoomed, they wouldn't need the help of Prop 13 because they could just tap that $1,000,000 (or more!) free equity in their house. If they used their house as an ATM... then they made financial choices and shouldn't be subsidized by everyone else.