Prop 13 Under Attack; Success Will Cost You Dearly

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association released a new poll showing majority of California voters 'strongly' oppose lowering the voting requirement for local property taxes on homeowner parcels from two-thirds to 55%. The three current proposals in California Legislature are SCA 3 (Leno), SCA 4 (Liu) and SCA 8 (Corbett).

More than 53% of voters oppose the change, and only 35% support the with 11% undecided. The poll was conducted by Probolsky Research and included 750 voters. The survey yielded a margin of error of +/- 3.7%  The intensity of opposition to lowering threshold was nearly double what it was for those in support;  40% of voters "definitely" oppose the idea of lowering the vote requirement, while just 21% say they would definitely support the change.

In the survey, the question was posed to voters: "Proposition 13 limits California property taxes to one percent of the taxable value of property. Parcel taxes are property taxes above the regular one percent tax and, under Proposition 13, these parcel taxes require a two-thirds vote of local voters to be passed into law. Do you support or oppose lowering the vote requirement for local parcel taxes from two-thirds to 55%?"

 The opposition to changing the voting threshold was broad-based:

*  68% of Republicans

*  53% of Decline-to-State (DTS) voters

* 44% of Democrats including  50% of Democrat women.

This is a further money grab from politicians — whether from Sacramento or the local level via Vallejo Measure "B" or Benicia's support for a 1/2% Sales and Use Tax accompanying a Library 1/8% Tax  Prop. 13 was established to protect homeowners from outrageous property tax increases, and that includes parcel taxes, which local politicians now want to subsist their out-if-control local spending."  At the state level the tax-and-spend lobby has been emboldened by the passage of Prop 30 and it's clear that the $50 billion tax hike didn't sate their thirst for more money.