🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov19.224143.24364@Cadence.COM>, phz@cadence.com (Pete Zakel) writes:
> In article <5649@bacon.IMSI.COM> jordan@IMSI.COM (Jordan Hayes) writes:
>>This is news to me.  Prop 13 showed clearly that California taxpayers
>>would rather have lower property taxes than good schools.  I've seen
 
> This is absolute bullshit.  Prop. 13 showed clearly that people thought
> property taxes were going through the roof and needed to be contained.
 
I'd say that the most accurate description of voter response to
prop 13 was that people saw property taxes spiralling out of
control and bit at the first idea that soudned good without fully
considering the consequences of prop 13's funding of various
pieces of government, schools included. The Prop 13 tax rates
effectively penalize new home buyers and give benefits to owners
of business and investment properties (which tend to change lands
less frequently). The 2/3 requirement for tax increases severely
cripples the ability of local government to acquire needed
funding. A lot of fat has been trimmed in the years since prop 13
but it hasn't prevented some waste from continuing and some truly
beneficial services from being cut. In short, I think that prop
13 was a less thhan optimal response to a real problem.

As an aside, the primary result of prop 13 has been to affect
_local_ funding so the results from it are far from uniform
across the state. Some local governments/special districts have
made cuts on citizen services while retaining waste, others have
virtually eliminated waste but still face budget shortfalls. The
alternative of state funding is a loss since the needs tend to be
in the cities and the rural legislators are not too happy to send
their constituents' tax dollars to the cities.

> There is no reason that school funding has to come from property taxes,
> and I personally don't think it should.

The main reason for school funding coming from property taxes is
because of the traditional degree of local control over use of
these funds. How would you choose to fund public schools?

-dh