Helping large-scale property owners to collect unearned economic rents was the primary motivation for Prop 13. Crippling the state and local governments’ democr

Helping 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.