3 ms·

You could preserve the value for "old people", as you say, by removing the caps for property held by businesses (similar to homestead in other states, I don't k

• toast0 8y ago
  California has a homestead exemption of about $7000 of assessed value; or about $70 savings annually. I don't think this gets adjusted ever, or if it was ever a meaningful amount. It's also tied into a renter's income tax credit, so I suspect it's fairly difficult to change. My opinion is that Prop 13 provides useful planning benefits to property owners and municipalities, and the rate of increase could be adjusted to still give those benefits, without having quite the same distortion. 5% annual assessment increase cap would probably be much too high, but 3% or 4% might be enough to stay within throwing distance of current values. As a soon to be former CA property owner it was nice to be able to know for sure my taxes would basically grow at 2% once prices started climt. Municipalities could count on property tax revenues staying flat or even continuing to grow during the housing market collapse because so many owners had their assessments constrained, and many of the sellers had assessments below even the depressed market value. Having constrained assessments also reduces the burden of assessment appeals, which I've heard is significant in locales without constraints.