Is Proposition 13 Really to Blame for the State’s Budget Problems?

In his April 17 cover story on Proposition 13 (“Don’t Be a ‘Girlie Man’ ”), Lee Green argued that the solution to virtually all of California’s economic problems is to simply raise property taxes by billions of dollars. To do this, he suggested that the state should essentially gut Proposition 13. We couldn’t disagree more.

The problem with Green’s argument is this: California’s budget crisis is not due to Proposition 13 or, for that matter, to the amount of total tax revenue state government takes in, but rather to reckless mismanagement of public spending. After all, property taxes have grown from $6.3 billion in 1980 to more than $31 billion this year.

California real estate taxes are a consistently strong, predictable and dependable source of local revenue, approaching or exceeding double-digit growth year after year. In recent years, they have been growing faster than income or sales taxes.

Would Green take us back to the age of uncertainty, when huge leaps in the value of a house elsewhere in a neighborhood resulted in shockingly high run-ups in value for unsuspecting folks? Boosting taxes on business property would be a bonanza--not for California’s government treasuries but for rival states whose governors would surely put the news at the top of their messages to recruit employers away from California.

Larry McCarthy

President, California Taxpayers’ Assn.

Jon Coupal

President, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.

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What would Green propose that all of us old people who have lived in our homes for 40 to 50 years do should Proposition 13 be repealed and our income is then barely enough to pay the new property taxes, and nothing more? Should we all become homeless? We bought when we could afford it, couldn’t afford to buy now, and couldn’t afford the taxes now. And, yes, many of us still have a mortgage. How else could we maintain our homes? Losing Proposition 13 is one of the scariest thoughts of old age.

Pat Miller

Redondo Beach

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Bravo for taking the problems spawned by Proposition 13 head on. Even in his excellent description of the damage done to the state by Proposition 13 and its basic unfairness, Green did not spell out the magnitude of the disaster.

By taking property tax revenue away from the cities and counties, Proposition 13 has weakened them. Municipalities do not have enough resources for police. California had one of the best education systems. Now it is financially strapped, and only a reliable source of income can help. Services that should be provided, from fixing potholes to libraries, are starved or dropped. California is one of the wealthiest states, but it’s funded as if it were a Third World country.

Emil Lawton

Sherman Oaks

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Proposition 13 is the only barrier to the unbridled rapacity of California’s legislators and officials. None of them have learned the lesson we all follow at home. Don’t have enough money for the stuff you want? Spend less. Set priorities. Do without. It’s really quite simple.

I was a state employee for almost 30 years. I see plenty of places to cut spending. California’s budget problem needs a czar with authority to ruthlessly blue-pencil expenditures.

Philip Van Camp

Murrieta