Way back in the day, we passed prop 13 because there was no end in sight to rising property taxes. We set an absolute limit that could not be exceeded without the express vote of the people.
Imagine where we would be today if Prop 13 were not in place. The give aways to state employees would be double, and propertty taxes would be monotonically increasing to pay an ever increasing state employee benefit and pay package. We already have 9% sales tax, 9.6% imcome tax, rising auto and boat taxes. Im only sorry we did not pass a limit on all taxes