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by g9yuayon 1957 days ago
I remember there was a huge discussion about Prop 13 on HN. IIRC, people passed Prop 13 because 1. California government double taxed; 2. Inflation was crazy and people believed that it was cruel that retirees had to leave the home they had been living in for many years just because they couldn't afford the property tax.

What beats me is why Prop 13 applies to commercial properties and investment homes.

1 comments

Even more surprising we tried to repeal prop 13 for just commercial real estate last election and it failed.
It failed at least in part because of the timing. A global pandemic that was destroying small businesses was a pretty unpopular time for something that is perceived as damaging to small businesses. Maybe when things are booming and prosperous we could pass that.
Perhaps taxes are too high?
There are ways to do revenue neutral tax changes, where you raise one and lower another one somewhere else, at the same time.
Maybe, I'm guessing a prop 13 repeal attached to a corresponding reduction in income tax to make it revenue-neutral would have a better time passing.