Prop 13: Ask your friends in California

It sounds like a great opportunity: Roll back my property tax to the 1997 level and keep it there. I’ll save plenty. I was tempted to vote yes on the referendum in November that was modeled on Proposition 13 in California. But then I decided to ask three friends and home owners in California. Here are their opinions of Prop 13.

Sally Smith

Sally Smith (I have changed my friends’ names) is a widow who has lived in the same lovely home in Hollywood for more than 50 years. She replied:

“I think Prop 13 is basically a disaster. Real estate taxes were too high and people were being tossed out of their homes, but there should have been a more sensible solution. To make up for the loss of revenue to the counties to pay for essential services, the state promised to make up the difference, but the result has been destructive to libraries, roads, police, schools, etc. Especially now that Gov. Schwarzenegger has taken away the auto license tax which covered some of those things. I’d vote no.”

John Jones

Emeritus Professor of Social Work John Jones is a university administrator who moved with his wife to Los Angeles County about 15 years ago. He commented:

“Some Prop 13 questions to be considered: (1) What revenue will be lost by capping property taxes and how will it be replaced? (2) Which level of government (state, county) will be most impacted by lost revenue? (3) How will lost revenue influence the delivery of basic health, education and welfare services? For reasons dating back to the Elizabethan Poor Laws, counties are the level of government most directly responsible for the delivery of services to the poor and most dependent upon property taxes. With Prop 13 the county’s capacity to meet its role in our federal system has been broken. We have 10 million people in LA County. Last year 3.5 million qualified for a county administered (federal, state, county funded) means-tested benefit for some part of the fiscal year. With Prop 13, counties have been weakened (emasculated perhaps) in their capacity to administer services to the poor.”

Bill Brown

Bill Brown is a builder and developer who has lived with his family in a small northern California town for more than 20 years. He wrote:

“Prop 13 was a total disaster for California. It has placed the state on the verge of bankruptcy ever since first passed. Property tax, although a burden for all of us who own property, is actually one of those ‘good’ progressive taxes that hits the wealthy, and especially wealthy corporate landowners, most heavily. I remember blindly voting for it, thinking about the couple of hundred dollars a year that I would save, but unaware of the million dollar breaks to large landholders like timber companies and corporate farms.

“In recent years, California instituted a high Vehicle License Fee tax that was based on the value of the car. This was also a good tax, but t was Arnold’s first act as governor to roll back that tax to its earlier level. This has left cities and communities broke, with no alternative but to increase fees for water, sewer, and solid waste services – all taxes that hit the poor harder than the rich. Also being considered here is a one-cent local sales tax that is also a ‘bad’ tax in that it has the greatest impact on the poor, and has the potential of hurting local retail. I hope Maine does not go the way of California in limiting property taxes. If you check out the sponsors, I bet they either are large landholders or work for them.”

Maine may not be California. But my friends’ analyses of Prop 13 suggest caution: The consequences of the proposed 1 percent property tax cap are possible disaster. Maine’s tax system is much too complicated to fix by referendum. I’m voting No in November.

Don’t take my word for it. If you have reliable friends in California, ask them for their opinion of Prop 13.

Arthur A. Dole pays property tax in Trenton in Hancock County.