Prop 13 is such a sad story of the narrow self-interest people vote and act with. Like it's the reason Disney's tax rate for their park in Anaheim was set in th

Prop 13 is such a sad story of the narrow self-interest people vote and act with. Like it's the reason Disney's tax rate for their park in Anaheim was set in the 1960s and basically hasn't moved. Does that sound like a good idea? But no, all people see is "my property taxes won't go up (as much)" It just keeps getting worse too because you can inherit a property on a stepped-up basis (meaning the cost gets reset to market value for capital gains tax purposes should you then sell it) but you can inherit your parents' advantageous property tax rate. This problem is so bad that a minimal claw back of Prop 13 benefits (Prop 19), which would limit you to only inheriting ONE beneficial tax rate, barely passed. Are half of CA voters really inheriting multiple properties with tax rates set in the 70s? Of course not. But people vote agains this kind of thing anyway. The other argument for Prop 13 is kicking seniors out of their houses when they're on a fixed income. I mean, do you really still need that 5 bedroom house in Los Altos whhen you're a retired couple? Of course not, but you'll happily pass it onto your children with no taxes and the low property tax rate if you can. If you're really concerned about seniors, you can carve out an exception just for them without giving an exception to everyone (including Disney). This is actually something that Texas handles better. You can stay in your house and defer your property taxes until you die. So there's an incentive to downsize and you're not priced out of your house if you really want to stay. And for the longest time (only up until the last 5-10 years), Texas managed to have relatively good control on house prices. It's why it was so popular to move to Texas. But national trends finally caught up with Texas too. Imagine what could've been funded if Prop 13 never passed. Infrastructure, education, health care, whatever.