Proposition 13 Aftereffects

I have been reading articles concerning the evils of Prop. 13. I suppose it is not perfect but it is better than anything the Legislature had to offer at that time. It was an attempt to spread the tax burden for schools, police, fire departments, etc., somewhat more evenly.

Now during a time that the governor preaches no new taxes, he is trying to force the individual counties and cities to raise their taxes by shifting the deficit onto the homeowner. Those of us who lived in the era of unlimited property taxes found that this procedure also had many faults, such as arbitrary appraisals with very little recourse for the property owner, large increases in the property taxes from one year to the next and it furnished a way for the government leaders to raise money without taking any blame. The property owner was defenseless and many felt that there was a threat of losing their homes.

Homeowners began to look around and found that they were bearing an unfair amount of the taxes. They also realized that because the schools, police, fire departments, etc., were supported mainly by property taxes, many districts were less equal than others. So the state money is called equalization. Now the pressure by our leaders is to go back to unequal local services, etc., dividing the citizens even further into top and bottom with fewer citizens in the middle in terms of education and lifestyles.

NEWTON LeBARON

Laguna Hills