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> Prop 13 was a reaction against confiscatory taxes that broke an important social contract. > The contract: If you save, invest, and pay off your home mortgag
by vonmoltke 7y ago
> Prop 13 was a reaction against confiscatory taxes that broke an important social contract.
> The contract: If you save, invest, and pay off your home mortgage so that you own it free and clear, later in life when you are retired and living on a fixed income no one can come along and confiscate the property that you bought and paid for fair and square.
That doesn't explain why Prop 13 applies to commercial, industrial, and rental properties.
- jacobolus 7y agoHelping large-scale property owners to collect unearned economic rents was the primary motivation for Prop 13. Crippling the state and local governments’ democratic power to collect taxes was the secondary motivation. Sob stories about retirees on fixed incomes getting taxed out of their homes was only the propagandistic sales pitch, a clever way to convince a majority of voters to support the referendum. The wealthy anti-tax activists who promoted prop 13 didn’t actually care about unwealthy elderly people per se. If such people had been the main focus, it would have been straightforward to come up with a much less dramatic remedy.