Well we haven’t had a Mello Roos discussion for a few weeks so let’s have at it.
Okay we can all sit here and bash Prop 13 because it is easy to do. Let’s try to focus on the facts which is admittedly hard.
Why did 13 come about? Well mainly because it was found that funding public school systems was based solely on property taxes was unconstitutional. What else was going on? Well as real estate valuations grew, tax assessments on property starting to hit fixed income and elderly hard. Imagine your grandma who paid 35k for a home in the 1960’s paying property tax bills based on a comp that was generated when her neighbor sold his home in 1977. Prior to Prop 13 rising property tax rates were a very real threat to people.
So prop 13 gets passed and in a nutshell it limits a 2% annual increase in assessed value of a home with a 1% tax rate. It is also a total boon for corps that hold commercial properties…talk about a major loophole…
We can sit here and toss back and forth the benefits/damage that prop 13 has done. In the 60’s California public schools were among the best in the country and now they rank much worse. Is that because of prop 13? Maybe and maybe not.
Overall my opinion is for residential props, prop 13 is good. They really blew it with regards to commercial property though… that is a post for another day.
So Mello Roos? What about them? I would advise people to google Mello Roos to find out more about them… it is not alot of work. Basically yes they are the civic answer to get funds to underwrite infrastructure due to the loss of revenue from property taxes. Simply put if it is unconstitutional to fund these improvements with a tax that is levied based on the value of a home, then this is a way to get around it. In some ways it is more equitable. Simply put, a Mello Roos district is created, the number of homes are totalled in the Mello Roos district, the cost of the infrastructure needed to support those homes is calculated, bonds are created to pay for that cost, and those living there who enjoy that infrastructure pay for it.
That is a way oversimplified version of course. Now… personally, no I will not purchase a home where I pay MR fees as it is against my grain. Like you guys I am so astounded with the incompetence of city/county/state leadership that my head pretty much explodes with every news release.
I just thought I would throw in my two cents here.
