'Hands Off Proposition 13,' Two-Thirds of California Voters Tell Gov. Jerry Brown and Respected Field Poll

By Jill Stewart Fri., Sep. 23 2011 at 4:27 PM

Green: Who backed Proposition 13 in 1978. Red: People who watched a ball game instead.

Wow, this is pretty definitive: With all kinds of California newspapers bashing Proposition 13 (often inaccurately claiming that it has starved the state budget -- which has skyrocketed since 1978 even as compared to inflation), 63 percent of California voters are telling Governor Jerry Brown to keeps his hands off the venerable property tax reform.

The Field Poll today found: "(63% to 29%) voters say that if Prop. 13 were up for a vote again today they would endorse it. By a five to four margin (50% to 41%) voters also oppose the idea of amending Prop. 13 to permit business and commercial property owners to be taxed at a higher rate than residential owners." That's another wow.

Now where is Brown going to get the cash he wants to bail out his battered ship, a ship that Brown said he would have no problem righting if only elected governor again?

Mark DiCamillo and Mervin Field write in their prepared statement today that:

When voters are reminded of the initiative and asked how they would vote if it were included on a statewide election ballot today, they back it by about the same margin as they did more than thirty- three years ago.

This must make California's big media power brokers feel emasculated, angry, helpless and even whiny.

In the past couple of years, there have been dozens -- make that thousands -- of newspaper editorials and "news analyses" decrying the 1978 property tax revolution in California. Just Google "Prop. 13" and "reform."

But the huge sea of Californians hasn't budged, almost to a person.

Why? Because baby boomers remember their grandparents and parents facing the forced sale of their homes in the face of shockingly huge property tax increases under -- none other than 1970s Gov. Jerry Brown.

Brown has a huge hill to climb here. It's very, very hard to say how he should go about doing that -- but it's worth noting that everything he has said so far has fallen flat with Californians.

Tags:

1978, Field Poll, Jerry Brown, property taxes, Proposition 13

We Recommend

home remedies for acne

Nice article.Thank You

rickabrams

Prop 13 has been a great benefit to all. Prop 13 stabilizes the community by encouraging people to stay put. When a person buys a home, he knows his taxes will remain the same. It does not matter if they are higher compared to someone who has lived there 20 or 30 years. The new guy gets the same deal that older homeowners got years before. As for paying their fair share, they've been paying for decades. Without Prop 13, many more people would be forced out of their homes in these economic hard times. That would be terrible for them and bad for the economy.

If you want to complain about those who do not pay their fair share, you should go after all those CRA skyscrapers who pay ZERO incremental property taxes! Bunker Hill, or example, pays ZERO incremental property taxes. Over $3 BILLION went to CRA/LA rather than to schools and the city. The CRA/LA then doled out the billions to the friends of the councilmembers. Guess who votes Yea or Nay on to whom the CRA gives its billions.

Over a year ago, I wrote that the CRA was stealing so many tax dollars that the politicos were going to start attacking Prop 13 in order to protect the CRA slush funds. Due to rampant corruption, AB 26 abolished the CRA's, but at the same time the Legislature passed AB 27 which allows cities like LA to start them up all over again, but this time they are called VARP's.

If you think $6,000 is too higher, then write to councilman Garcetti and ask him to tell his billionaire buddy Eli Broad to give you a few thousand of the $52 MILLION that Garcetti and the other councilmemebrs gave to this billionaire to build his own parking garage next to his art museum or you can compete with Philip Anschutz for the billions will give him for moving an NFL team to LA to play in Philip Anschutz' AEG Stadium.

NIKEYLYNN

HE SHOULD REALLY CONSIDER SERIOUS RENT CONTROLL IN LOS ANGELES. I RENT A 1BD ROOM DUPLEX FOR $1150.00. THAT IS REDICULOUS! IF PEOPLE DID'NT HAVE TO PAY GROSSLY OVER PRICED RENTS, THEY WOULD HAVE MONEY TO SPEND TO JUMP START THE ECONOMY..

Briansays

on the other hand renters get to vote on parcel taxes which they don't pay in the end a lot of government programs need to be supported by user feesif they cant support themselves then eliminate themtoo many non essential programs and services have come to be seen as an entitlement by those who use them many middle class who could pay a fee to support them

Ejarvis

My annual tax bill on a 1800 sq. ft. home purchased in 2006 is $6,000; my neighbor next door in a 3,000 sq. foot home purchased 20 years ago only pays about $800, as do most of my neighbors. But we all "enjoy" the same city services. So when I and other new comers are forced out because we can't afford the high taxes, the support falls back on the pre-proposition 13 homeowners - thus no money to support today's economy. And that is the problem with the Proposition 13 premise. The taxes base should be more evenly spread around, and definitely should not be "grandfathered" to children who inherit the parents' property.

Jvda

When i bought my house in 1978 the taxes were $400., the next year $800., and the next $1600.. Then prop 13 passed because people were being forced out of there homes and the politicians did nothing. Everyone of them, the police chief, fire chief, teachers union, Mayor, council members were on television, telling people how the crime would rise, homes could not be protected and burn down, stations would have to be closed, schools would loose teachers and education would suffer. What a bunch of crap. Trying to protect there "empire" at everyone's expense. When you but now you know what your taxes will be, no 100% increases each year, you know what to expect and can afford it or you should not buy it.

Game on now for the politicians trying to divide and defeat. Hey who pays business "taxes", you do when you purchase the product or service, this is not brain science. Anything government charges business YOU end up paying not the business.

It took the "government" about 10 years to adjust and figure out how to shake more money out of us (fee's on business, builders permits (guess who pays for that when you buy a house) extortion forcing builders to pay for infrastructure or don't build, business license fee's, inspection fee's you name it you know what i'm talking about. We need to keep our eyes on government, they are not our friends............