C.W. Nevius - It's Time to Redo The Revolution, Chron May 3, 2005

[Coastie for Truth]

"Everyone says it. Proposition 13 is the third rail of California politics. Any politician who touches it will see his career go up in smoke.

Well guess what? It is time to touch the third rail. Don't take my word for it. Listen to some of the top economists in the country -- like Harvard professor Caroline Hoxby, a specialist in the economics of education, who calls Prop. 13 "a really terrible idea. I can't think of anything good about it.''

But then, a lot of people have been saying that since 1978 when the "taxpayer revolution'' swept California and turned cantankerous Howard "I'm Mad as Hell and I'm Not Going to Take It Anymore'' Jarvis into a national figure.

Tapping into statewide anger about rising property taxes, the group passed a ballot initiative that effectively froze property taxes so homeowners who stay in their houses for 15 to 20 years end up paying a fraction of what new owners must surrender.

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....A study by the Rand think tank released in January found California was $400 to $800 per student below the national average between 1991 and 2000. The same study showed that California's once-renowned school system ranked as low as dead last in achievement test scores.

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Although there was much talk when Prop. 13 passed about seniors on fixed incomes being tossed out on the street because they couldn't afford rising property taxes, Akerlof notes it is commercial property that may have "gotten a tremendous free ride.''

"The (lost) property tax on commercial property has been estimated at several billion dollars a year,'' Auerbach says.

Addressing even a portion of that would make a sizable dent in the school budget.

<snip>

Auerbach points out another unique Prop. 13 quirk. In most other states, property taxes are used to fund schools in the surrounding area. But one of the changes that fueled the Jarvis "revolution'' was that taxpayers send their money to Sacramento, where it is doled out to all public schools across the state.

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A very good read.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/05/03/BAGBICITH61.DTL

[xchrom]

1. they'll raise the taxes on those

who can least afford it.

until we can boot out the gropenboober -- and a few corrupt key dems -- they won't do the right thing.