patrick.net

Stable taxes is good. The problem with Prop 13 is not that it limited tax increases. It creates a vested majority that can vote or allow spending without paying for it.

If taxes were fixed on the same tax basis for everyone, California would have owned up to this mess earlier.

Instead, we have a majority of people paying a less of the taxes, and the recent and the young buyers of property paying much more.

So increase in fire, police wages pensions, schools have been piled on to these new buyers.

In other words, bubble prices drove a bubble in taxes, which drove a bubble in spending. And the majority, having pre-bubble level taxes, did not care.

If tax basis was not allowed to bubble, these bubble based tax income would not have existed, and CA would have had to face up to the music earlier - pony up, or cut.

Tax reform wont happen, as most of the Prop 13 supporters (old buyers/those with low basis) do not have to face that choice of pay up or cut.

For old basis owners, the choices are
(a) keep current taxes(low taxes), and don't cut.
(b)keep current taxes (low taxes), cut.

For the new basis owners the choices are
(a)keep current taxes (high taxes), and don't cut
(b) keep current taxes(high taxes), and cut.

For old basers, (a) is preferable - pay low, and get more. Greed wins
For new basers ,(b) is not acceptable - pay more and get less. So they also chose (a). Value for money.

Hence no cuts

yep, it aint gonna happen. The old geezers would be out on the streets.

Yes, we will have more homeless geezers with a $million in their pockets, but the total number of homeless should not go up, because, with the home prices coming down faster, we will now have more younger people who can afford to buy.

Unfortunately, the old geezers actually vote. The young people love to march in the streets but are too stoned to make it to the polls. I heard the average age of voters is almost 60.

This is a major generational warfare. The young people will eventually remind the boomers how they squandered away all the inheritence money, and left them with nothing but debt and unemployment. The boomers will die a very broke and lonely death, rotting away in their termite-infested bungalows.

Nobody will admit it, but I believe that 90% of California's troubles comes from Prop 13. There are other states which are just as profligate as California (New York, Illinois to name a few), but they still have lower taxes, and they are not insolvent. The main difference is Prop. 13.