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Direct democracy also leads to dumpster fires of a policy choice like Proposition 13 for your southern neighbors. No guarantees it wouldn't have passed through
by hpkuarg 6y ago
Direct democracy also leads to dumpster fires of a policy choice like Proposition 13 for your southern neighbors. No guarantees it wouldn't have passed through regular legislative channels, I suppose...
- JoshTriplett 6y agoGiven that it's also a third-rail for politicians to try to touch, it sounds like it worked precisely as it should, and gave people what they wanted and voted for. Oregon passed something similar, albeit weaker; I wish we'd passed something much stronger. Not because I'm anti-taxation, but because funding anything via property taxes is an incredibly bad idea and leads to funding and service quality that's correlated with property values.
- kazagistar 6y agoIf it were redistributive instead of local that wouldn't be a problem, and excluding primary lived in properties gets rid of any moral hazard.
- JoshTriplett 6y agoBoth of those would be a substantial improvement, yes. At that point, you'd just have an unusual, specialized wealth tax. If you're going to change property taxes that much, though, you might as well go all the way to a land-value tax, which would also reduce problems with assessment and improvement.