Must-Read: Dan Walters: Finally, War on Prop. 13 Breaks Out
Must-Read: The truly extraordinary thing about California’s Proposition 13 was not that it nearly froze residential real estate taxes as long as residents owned the property, but that it nearly froze commercial and industrial real estate taxes essentially forever. I do not understand how that provision made it into Jarvis-Gann in the first place–or how it has survived in California for so long…
…A union-led coalition of liberal groups launched a campaign to change Proposition 13, the iconic 1978 property tax limit, seeking billions more in revenue from commercial and industrial property owners. The coalition, Make It Fair, declared its intention to place a ‘split roll’ measure on the 2016 ballot, keeping Proposition 13’s limits in place for homes, residential rental properties and farms, but allowing upward revisions in taxable values on other properties. The ‘maybe’ qualifier is that… sponsors… indicated it would be dropped if many of the same groups decide to ask voters to extend Proposition 30, the temporary sales and income tax hike approved in 2012…