[quote=EconProf]urbanrealtor: to what would you attribute the shortfall?[/quote]
Lower-division post-secondary instructors refusing to answer my questions.
Duh.
Sorry, I can’t help love the irony of me (the owner of an independent business) being more left than you (who I think is paid by my taxes).
Anyway:
I would attribute it to several issues.
Generally, those would fall under the rubric of a spending-revenue combination that is waaaaay out of line with reality (the same way the federal government spends at 22% of gdp and taxes at 17%).
I don’t have easy fixes but I can call out a few of the more glaring issues.
The biggest, tastiest target is prop 13.
There were a lot of ways to deal with older people being unfairly taxed as a result of property valuation increases (like adding the tax obligations as silent liens).
None of those sensible ways was tried.
Instead we just said “no new taxes”.
As a result of this, California as a whole has the lowest tax rate as a percentage of net worth in the US.
In other words, if you are rich you pay less taxes as a rate (and often in dollar amount) than those who work (and have their income taxed).
Places who need to impose usage assessments are legally barred from doing so as an ad valorem obligation.
They are just required to use a flat usage fee.
That is why places like Temecula have effective property tax rates over 3%.
Those actually get higher in rate the lower your gross market value.
This makes these places are the most regressively taxed in the state (and probably the US).
