Re: Re: Re: [Pen-l] California Fiscal Bait and Switch

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

David B. Shemano wrote:
>> Tell me, specifically, who were the "powerful interests" that intentionally mislead the gullible middle class?  Prop 13, and the debate about Prop 13, was as true an example of "democracy," meaning that the citizenry as a whole was actively and directly engaged on a matter of public policy,  that I remember in my life.  Average people normally politically disinterested were engaged, became informed and argued with their friends and family members.<<

from the Wikipedia, which seems pretty good to me (given my memory
deficits, of course):
> Proposition 13 drew its impetus from 1971 and 1976 California Supreme Court rulings in Serrano v. Priest, that a property-tax based finance system for public schools was unconstitutional. The California Constitution required the legislature to provide a free public school system for each district, and the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution (which includes the Equal Protection Clause) required all states provide to all citizens equal protection of the law. The court ruled that the amount of funding going to different districts was disproportionately favoring the wealthy. Previously, local property taxes went directly to the local school system, which minimized state government's involvement in the distribution of revenue. This system also allowed a wealthier district to fund its schools with a lower tax rate than the rate a less affluent district would have to set in order to yield the same funding per pupil. The Court ruled that the state had to make the distribution of revenue more equitable. The state legislature responded by capping the rate of local revenue that a school district could receive and distributing excess amounts among the poorer districts. Although this was more equitable, property owners in affluent districts perceived that the benefits of the taxes they paid were no longer enjoyed exclusively by the local schools.

> Moreover, the state's increasing population [along with inflation --JD] fueled increased demand for housing, resulting in higher property values and, consequently, higher taxes. Although the revenues supported the costs of growth, such as new schools, roads, and the extension of other municipal services, older Californians on fixed incomes were especially hard hit by rising property values. Due to inflation, reassessments on residential property drove property taxes so high that some retired people could no longer afford to remain in homes they had purchased long before.

> In the early 1960s, several scandals erupted through California involving county assessors. These assessors, who had traditionally enjoyed great latitude in setting the taxable value of properties, were found rewarding friends and allies with artificially low assessments, with tax bills to match. These scandals led in 1966 to the passage of AB 80, which imposed standards to hold assessments to market value. However, assessors, who are elected officials, had traditionally used their flexibility to aid elderly homeowners on fixed incomes, and more broadly to systematically undervalue vote-rich residential properties and compensate by inflating commercial assessments. The return to market value in the wake of AB 80 could easily represent a mid-double-digit percentage increase in assessment for many homeowners.

> As a result, a large number of California homeowners experienced an immediate and drastic rise in valuation, simultaneous with rising tax rates on that assessed value, only to be told that the taxed moneys would be redistributed to distant communities. The ensuing anger started to form into a backlash against property taxes which coalesced around Howard Jarvis, a former newspaperman and appliance manufacturer, turned taxpayer activist in retirement.

> Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann were the most vocal and visible backers of Proposition 13. Officially titled the "People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation," and popularly known as the "Jarvis-Gann Amendment," Proposition 13 was placed on the ballot through the California ballot initiative process, a provision of the California constitution which allows a proposed law or constitutional amendment to be placed before the voters if backers collect a sufficient number of signatures on a petition. Proposition 13 passed with 65% of those who voted in favor and with the participation of 70% of registered voters. After passage, it became article 13A of the California state constitution.<

It seems a perfect example of grass-roots democracy, with "the
citizenry as a whole ... actively and directly engaged on a matter of
public policy" -- shooting themselves in the collective foot. The
problem is that people were fighting to preserve their living
standards against rising tax assessments, (which shifted the costs
over to the schools and other public services), instead of being
organized to oppose or transform the system (capitalism) that spawned
the stagflation and thus the increasingly painful real-estate tax
assessments. Instead of joining or forming social-democratic or
socialist or labor parties, they joined a movement which (in the long
run) made their conditions worse. This seems largely the result of the
fractured nature of white "middle-class" suburban society,[*] with
little ability to put long-term solidarity into practice.

It's a bit like the Russian peasants a century or so ago who would
express their ire not by running the landlord off but by lynching
members of the local pariah group (typically, Jews). Sure, they were
likely encouraged by the _agents provocateurs_, but the alternative --
going against the landlord -- was just too difficult.
-- 
Jim Devine / "If heart-aches were commercials, we'd all be on TV." -- John Prine

[*] As a working definition, I see the "middle class" as consisting of
those households who own a significant amount of equity in their homes
(which they live in) and have only one serious home (not some rickety
summer cabin).
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l