[quote=FlyerInHi][quote=CA renter]Instead of posting pictures of lame cartoons, try responding to why we should take from those who worked (public sector employees) to give to those who don’t (wealthy commercial, industrial, and residential landlords; owners of vast tracts of land, etc.).
If we were to stop subsidizing the land owners (not referring to a single primary residence, as that is why Prop 13 passed by such a large margin, and I do not believe in taxing people out of their homes), the “pension crisis” in California would mostly disappear.
YOU are the beneficiary of thousands of dollars of theses subsidies every year because you inherited your parents’ rental units. Why do you think a cop, firefighter, or teacher should give up the pensions that they have earned so that we can maintain these exceedingly profitable — AND TOTALLY UNEARNED — subsidies to YOU?[/quote]
I don’t think there’s any kind of equivalence between Prop 13 and pensions.
Pensions shortfalls are a result of past budgets shenanigans and/or incompetence. Let it all work out in court when the time comes.
I would never support tax increases to paper over the pensions. Tax increases for services to citizens, fine. But no new taxes to pay for retired people who don’t provide us anything. Sorry.[/quote]CA residents wouldn’t have to support continual tax increases if those millions of “heirs” who inherited real property CA were paying their FAIR SHARE in property taxes! The phasters of the world (and millions of others, including the Piggs) are being unjustly enriched through Props 58 and 193 (as progeny of Prop 13). This is so because the current heir/owner’s assessments (vast majority are able-bodied) on their propertie(s) handed down to them by parents and grandparents (whether residential, commercial, industrial or agricultural) are still assessed as low as 1/10th of their fair market value! Meanwhile, the parcel(s) directly adjacent to theirs very well could be assessed at FMV or very close to it.
The passage and subsequent very heavy use of Props 58 and 193 by “heirs” is a HUGE form of welfare to one segment of CA’s population at the expense of all other property owners not so fortunate. The beneficiaries of Props 58 and 193 use just as much (or more) city/county services as their close neighbors do who pay up to 10x the annual property tax. This “welfare benefit” is highest for those who “inherited” properties in CA’s most valuable communities. Therefore it mostly benefits the “rich” meaning those born into money and/or those whose parents or grandparents managed to buy up properties in CA’s best communities and hang onto them over the years.
I have stated here before that I don’t have any problem with ultra-low Prop 13 assessments (for original owner/occupiers who still occupy the SAME residence today because they will eventually pass on, and (in the absence of Props 58 and 193), their residence would have ostensibly been reassessed at FMV upon their deaths. What I have a problem with is that, in CA, their ultra-low assessments are routinely passed onto their “heir(s)” incentivizing the heir(s) to keep the property for their own residence or an investment. In the other 49 states, if an heir couldn’t afford the property tax on a stepped-up assessment of their deceased parent/grandparent’s property, they choose to sell it. As it should be.
Again, the vast majority of these occupying CA “heirs” are middle-aged (even young), very much able-bodied and NOT disabled! They are no more “deserving” of a 90% discount on their property tax bill than I am! The ill-thought-out shenanigans by our Legislature in passing Props 58 and 193 in the ’80’s is the sole reason for the dearth of inventory (listings) in CA’s most established areas. This problem is especially pronounced in CA’s most exclusive and valuable established areas because that is where the “inherited” Prop 13 property tax discount is the deepest due to the superior rate of appreciation of those areas over decades.
Props 58 and 193 have effectively rendered the ultra-low September 1975 assessments (used as a base year for the [retroactive] 2% increase in assessment per year from September 1978 forward) into perpetuity as long as the property is held by a descendant of the original owner/decedent and never sold. These measures should have never been passed and should be repealed forthwith. Not only are they grossly unfair to all CA property owners who didn’t “inherit” their property, the measures will eventually bankrupt our state . . . and as a byproduct, our more well-established cities.
