Macy’s Abandons Prop. 13 Appeal

Proposition 13: A wonderful, marvelous taxation cure-all? Perhaps not.

For my friends who have stayed put in their homes since 1977, it is like manna from heaven--a veritable yearly gift.

My friends who have pulled up stakes to move elsewhere in California since 1977 pay up to five times as much in property taxes as their remain-in-one-place associates for the same valued property.

The most obvious travesty of fairness is when two houses side by side in the same tract that originally cost the same are taxed differently: A longtime resident owner of the one pays $450 per year. The other, a new owner of an identical house next door, pays $2,000 per year.

Equal taxation? Obviously not. Inherent injustice? I think so. Unconstitutional? Without a doubt.

CHARLES R. BARR, Upland