Look at it from the other side of the coin. I bought a home. It was a responsible purchase, in line with my earnings. 30 years later, I pay the home off. I ret

Look at it from the other side of the coin. I bought a home. It was a responsible purchase, in line with my earnings. 30 years later, I pay the home off. I retire on a fixed income which accounts for the roughly fixed costs of my home and its upkeep. Now a big company builds a campus next door. Home prices skyrocket. What do I do? If my property tax is bounded, I'm fine. If not, then suddenly I lose my home because my fixed income did not account for my property taxes skyrocketing. Sure, Prop 60 accounts for that by transferring basis, but maybe I'm 54 when this occurs so it doesn't apply. Or maybe I'm not retired, but have 3 kids in the local school district and having to uproot my family because I can't afford my home is extremely disruptive. One of the points in buying a home, rather than renting, is to guarantee that stability. I agree that there are problems with prop 13, but fairness is a two sided coin. It is certainly not fair for my home (which I own) to suddenly become unaffordable due to external circumstances. Likewise it's not fair for a neighbor to pay double for roughly the same consumption of public services. I don't know the solution. Possibly decoupling property tax from home values might be the answer. It certainly isn't a very good tracker for public good consumption.