Comments on: Beware of lawmakers selling Prop. 13 snake oil

By: CalWatchdog

CalWatchdog — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:59:10 +0000

Really: It really was bad in 1978. Grandmothers were losing their homes. The government was rolling in surplus revenues. The Legislature failed to act on tax reform. Prop. 13 wasn’t perfect, but it did stabilize state finances for a decade, until the Gann Limit (on spending) was repealed in 1990.

— John Seiler

By: Really?

Really? — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:01:51 +0000

Newly house rich? If one pays a mortgage for 30+ years to achieve ownership that makes them ‘newly house rich’? I’m not following-please clarify.

By: howsadandpathetic

howsadandpathetic — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 10:11:52 +0000

It’s absolutely mind boggling that the 1978 response to skyrocketing home vales was to cap property taxes. If only “reverse mortgages” had been invented to allow newly house-rich to keep their homes despite the increase in prop taxes. Instead we have a system that rewards the least economically productive members of society to live in the most desirable areas without footing any of the bill for the required services necessary to support a growing population The perverse effect is that some of the most expensive areas with elderly populations have the worst schools and young families have to commute to jobs very far away. Luckily, I just work remotely in another state and have my California paycheck mailed to me bypassing the entire ridiculous system, and happily not paying a dime to a state with such disregard for the hand(s) that feed it.

By: SeeSaw

SeeSaw — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:02:30 +0000

The thing about parcel taxes is that the property owners have a vote. There are no extra parcel taxes on my property tax bill, because we don’t pass them in my District.

I think that all churches should pay property taxes if they get involved in political campaigns.

By: CalWatchdog

CalWatchdog — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:49:48 +0000

StevefromSacto: The point of a parcel tax is that it’s on each “parcel,” whether owned by a person or a big corporation. So I assume you will oppose efforts by Democrats in the Legislature to drop to 55 percent from 2/3 the threshold for passing parcel taxes for local schools and libraries?

And as to churches being taxed, I assume that you will insist on immediately taxing all the inner-city churches that openly campaigned from the pulpit for Barack Obama?

— John Seiler

By: StevefromSacto

StevefromSacto — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:44:41 +0000

So Disney and HP should pay the same tax as my grandmother? LOL.

Other than those–like John–who want taxes to disappear, most of us are willing to pay our fair share as long as others do the same.

And while we’re at it, if churches want to get involved in secular politics, tax church property too!

By: CalWatchdog

CalWatchdog — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 02:48:29 +0000

StevefromSacto: Most commercial property in the state rents to small businesses. Who do you think owns all those strip malls and industrial parks? Increasing commercial property taxes would see the higher taxes passed on to small-business tenants, many of which would go broke, or leave the state, killing hundreds of thousands of jobs. Way to go!

— John Seiler

By: BobA

BobA — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 01:59:35 +0000

StevefromSacto:

Once all the corporations have left the state, what then? Our state government has an insatiable appetite for spending other people’s money. An appetite that can never be fully sated and will continue to grow until there is nothing left to consume.

By: StevefromSacto

StevefromSacto — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 21:02:29 +0000

“I would not mind seeing commercial property assessed to market on say, oh I don’t know, once every 10 years. That way these large corps that own their property and have for decades will pay some fair share of their market value property.”

OMG! Pigs are flying, the temperature is 27 degrees in hell. I ACTUALLY AGREE WITH REXIE ON SOMETHING!

If the Dems put up a proposal to split the tax rolls, leaving residential taxes alone while making corporations pay their fair share, it will pass.

By: BobA

BobA — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:20:19 +0000

Hondo:

The state may be out of people and places to steal but there is our children’s future they can steal from. The federal government has been doing it for years now so the states might as well get a piece of the action before they’re left with nothing but our grandchildren and their children’s future to steal from.

The 13th amendment abolished slavery. It said nothing about abolishing prostitution and pimping. Anyone who works for a living today is a de-facto prostitute being pimped out by Mac-Daddy Uncle Sam who use the IRS and the state Franchise Tax Board to “collect their money from them ho’s.”