Proposition 13 Aftereffects

I have been a resident of California and a property owner for nearly 30 years. I was one of the many who voted for and supported Proposition 13. I am one of two original homeowners on my block. Most of my neighbors are paying taxes at least twice as high and in some cases three times as high as mine. This obviously is not fair.

Before Prop. 13, people were losing their homes because of sudden unexpected increases in assessment of their property. After Prop. 13, a new problem developed. There has been gradual but constant increase in the resale price of identical homes to where now the unfair nature of this tax code is too large to ignore.

May I suggest a fair solution:

* Prop. 13 allowed a 2% rise in assessment each year. This fixed level clearly did not keep pace with inflation. Remaining within the spirit of Prop. 13, we could replace this fixed rate with a rate indexed for inflation. The tax would be pegged to the value of the dollar in the year in which a home was purchased.

* This change could be made revenue neutral by lowering the 1% rate mandated by Prop. 13. New homeowners would get a tax cut, while long-term homeowners such as myself would get a tax increase.

For years the state and local governments have increased other taxes to make up for the shortfall caused by Prop. 13. These governments should not be allowed to receive any windfalls from reform of Prop. 13. If a revenue-neutral change of this sort were implemented, new homeowners could expect their taxes to be cut nearly in half.

ROLAND BOUCHER

Costa Mesa