Comments on: Revving Up Higher Property Taxes

By: queeg

queeg — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:58:02 +0000

Government extracts taxes on wealth generators using a PROGRESSIVE scale of reaming….government is never fair!

And do you have the same benefits and pay as government slackers?

By: Tom in SoCal

Tom in SoCal — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:11:41 +0000

If Sacramento is able to split the rolls so that commercial property is either assessed more often or taxed at a greater rate, they will unleash the same problems on commercial real estate that residential real estate has suffered these past few years.

Commercial real estate values will drop dramatically and quickly and soon many owners of commercial real estate will find themselves underwater and unable to refinance. They will default rather than throw more money into a losing proposition and banks will have more bad loans on their balance sheets.

Will any of this help Sacramento? No, No, No.

They keep avoiding the real problem. The politicians have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

By: jskdn

jskdn — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:00:57 +0000

“queeg says:

He who looks for fairness in business or government is a social justice advocate….that leads to misery for everyone…”

Believing that government ought to be fair, to treat citizens equally, doesn’t make one some sort of wild-eyed leftist advocating some self-serving notion of social justice.

By: Escovado

Escovado — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:34:07 +0000

The government of California won’t be happy until every last employer is driven out of the state. Yeesh!

By: Beelzebub

Beelzebub — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:15:45 +0000

“We live within our means and have never taken a hand out from the government unless you count medicare which we worked for”

Congratulations on living frugally, Gary H. That is the only way you can beat these bastards. I bet you pay next to nothing in property tax. I would guess you pay $250 a year max. Good for you. Beat ’em at their own game, old boy! And if you can figure out a way to do it – die broke. That way they can’t take anything from you after you’re gone.

Medicare is a broken system, Gary H. People say that they deserve it because they paid into it. What they don’t tell you is that they took 100’s of thousands of dollars more out of the Medicare system than what they paid in. Therein lies the problem. As long as people continue to get free hip transplants and free heart bypasses and free prescription drugs on the taxpayer’s dime the Medicare system is sure to collapse. It is completely unsustainable. And Obamacare does not make it better. His plan actually makes it worse and will guarantee a total fiscal failure within 10 years. The entire US healthcare system needs to be completely revamped. Right now we spend 18% of GDP on healthcare. It will rise to 25% by 2020. Personally, I don’t think we’ll get there. Humpty will fall off the wall before we get to 2020. Good luck to you, old timer!

By: Gary H.

Gary H. — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 02:01:07 +0000

I lived in Simi Valley before Prop. 13 was enacted and knew people who lost their homes due the the ever increasing property tax burden’s.
We have lived in our 1000 sq. foot home for over 50 years now and yes, our taxes are lower then most. We are in our mid 70’s and would say not all that many original’s are still in the same home.
We live within our means and have never taken a hand out from the government unless you count medicare which we worked for.
There is no way we ever made or make the kind of money government types get today. So, live within your means Mr. Government and those of you on generational welfare, how about you pay something too!!!

By: queeg

queeg — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:37:44 +0000

He who looks for fairness in business or government is a social justice advocate….that leads to misery for everyone…

By: Beelzebub

Beelzebub — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:51:18 +0000

The State got itself into this mess through continuous deficit spending and irresponsible fiscal management. One quid pro quo give-away program after another. Now the chickens are coming home to roost and the Sactown boys got their gonads in a vice grip. Whoever they try to steal more money from will not come without severe political and economic consequences. Mess with Prop 13 in an already declining RE marker with hundreds of thousands of distressed and foreclosed properties on the balance sheets and you are asking for financial armaggedeon. Right now anybody who bought a home in California in 2004 in underwater. 8 years ownership and screwed. Wow.

But I agree that many commercial businesses are scamming the system by not paying their fair share in property taxes. Corporate lawyers are able to scam the system with legaleze to ensure that even when property ownership changes hands that the property tax rates never readjust like it would with a residential property. That’s plain wrong. There should be one set of rules that everyone plays by.

By: David H

David H — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:55:55 +0000

There is nothing wrong with prop 13, the problem is government spending hijacked by public unions. The baby boomers are already flush with real estate they can not afford and realize they have no need of since the return on investment is negative and will be for some time.

By: jskdn

jskdn — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:55:23 +0000

Jennifer Bestor’s motivation seems to be more money for schools. That put’s her in the camp where the goal to get more money for government is couched in terms of reform of Prop 13. Reform of Prop 13 ought to be done in a manner that is revenue neutral with fairness between taxpayers being the fundamental principle.