Arnold’s new property tax

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Good morning. Disinclined as I am to wade into state politics, this one is teed up like a Titleist: The governor’s proposed ‘surcharge’ on property insurance premiums is more accurately described as a tax increase. That doesn’t make it a bad thing. That makes it a tax increase.

I know, I know, I hear a couple of you saying, ‘Wait a minute, there are important differences between taxes and fees and surcharges. There are important legal differences...’ And then your lips keep moving but the rest of what you say sounds like ‘Blah, blah, blah,’ because I am not listening.

It’s a tax increase.

A while back I made a critical comment about Prop. 13, and nearly got my fingers chopped off in the comments. So today I’ll let David Lazarus do the talking, and his fingers take the chopping.Today he writes, ‘Rethinking Proposition 13 wouldn’t be easy. But it would be right.’

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo credit: Gov. Schwarzenegger (left), with Tony Beard, Sergeant-at-Arms for the state Senate, from L.A. Times