On: The Golden State's War on Itself

[CWuestefeld]

Without repealing Prop 13 and making our tax system more equitable, we cannot reduce the high property/sales taxes

I don't know anything about this issue, but your statement here doesn't make logical sense. You're saying (if I interpret it right) that "property taxes can't be reduced because some people are already paying low property taxes".

What am I missing?

[necubi → CWuestefeld]

That's exactly right. The property tax rate (the percentage of the value of your home that you must pay every year) cannot be reduced, because many property owners are paying that percentage on the values of their homes twenty years ago or more. This makes the tax rate very unfavorable for new owners and very good for those who have owned since Prop 13 was passed in 1978. If everybody paid tax based on their current home price (an order of magnitude difference for some properties), the tax _rate_ could be reduced for everybody (though many would end up paying more tax).

Edit: re-reading my original comment, I should have made clear that I was talking about the property tax rate, not the dollar amount assessed, which will of course be different for everybody.

[ww520 → CWuestefeld]

I encourage people to read into Prop 13 if they are not informed about the issue.

He is saying that the burden of property tax is not distributed evenly while the benefits of the property tax in the form of more educated populace, fire and policy protection, and better infrastructure are enjoyed evenly. People living in their houses longer are being subsidized by the new home owners, who are paying high property tax. If it's taxed more evenly, those new home owners would see a lower property tax bill.

[CWuestefeld → ww520]

How is this different than 'most every other tax? One way or another, it's always one group of people subsidizing another group. Why the call for tax equality here, when in pretty much every case we hear calls for "progressive this" and "helping disadvantaged that"?