[jjav]

> So if you bought a house in the 1970s for like $30,000 and its worth $2,000,000 today, you are only paying taxes on property worth $30k.

That is not at all how California Prop 13 works, although it is an often repeated myth.

Under prop13, the property tax goes up 2% every year (technically up to 2%, but unless you're in an economically depressed area it's always 2%).

So it is a damping function, essentially equivalent to rent control, to smooth out the swings in market price and replace it with a fixed yearly increase you can predict.

In practice, however, the property tax goes up more than 2% per year because counties and cities are allowed to attach all kinds of fees under the umbrella of property taxes and those don't count towards the 2% increase limit.