Property taxes in the US are mainly state law. Like anything else about taxes, California created a very weird system for its property taxes. Property taxes a

Property taxes in the US are mainly state law. Like anything else about taxes, California created a very weird system for its property taxes. Property taxes are a percentage of the property's value, but states have very creative ways to define the property's value. For instance, North Carolina automatically updates property values every few years ( http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByArticle/Chapter_105/Article_11.html http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML... ), and there is a way to dispute the tax assessor's office. California put limits on what property tax can be used for, how much it can change per year, and when the property's value gets reassessed (answer: when the property sells) in the '70s ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_%281978%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_%2819... ). It was done through a ballot measure, which means the legislature can't make any changes by itself.