Prop. 13 and the Cost of Government

* Your headline for the Oct. 10 article about Prop. 13 was absolutely misleading. The subhead read, “Four of five Ventura County homeowners call themselves victims of the 1978 property tax initiative.” But, the article states, “Four of every five Ventura County homeowners could see themselves as victims of the initiative . . . “

What your article did not show was the number of elderly who would lose their homes without Prop. 13. You did not show the dramatic loss of revenue for the county if Prop. 13 did not exist because of the lowered value of homes, since the tax situation would once again become unstable.

Your article was a biased view that government needs more money, because only government can solve problems. For 13 years the state legislature bailed out the cities and counties from the loss of property taxes due to Prop. 13.

Instead of controlling the cost of government, local government continues to create new commissions (Supervisor Howard now wants a commission on cultural heritage), fails to control costs (it costs the county $1 million a year to provide firefighting services for the Ventura station they closed, while the city of Ventura can provide the same services for $75,000), spends money wastefully (it costs five times the money to clean the bathrooms at the Simi Valley Library than in the private sector).

No, it is not a matter that the people are not taxed enough; it is a matter that like a little child in a candy store, government cannot control itself with unlimited resources. The more you give it, the more they spend.

Stephen R. Frank

Simi Valley