I like what Buffett said about prop 13
Kiss of death, I think. I think you SERIOUSLY underestimate statewide support for it. Remember, it's not just property taxes in there; the requirement that tax increases have to go to voters and need a 2/3 vote also are.
I think there are ways of dealing with prop 13. We have got to get some of these absentee landlords out of SV and prop 13 is what keeps them here, it disrupts the natural stream of business imho. Say you gave the homeowners who bought since 95 a 20% property tax reduction and reassessed those that were paying taxes below 50% of appraised value, meaning give the people paying high rates a reason to want to take down the freeloaders. Or, eliminate prop 13 for absentee landlords, those people won't get much support in the state, half of them are gone.
Before I bought property I rented in the bay area from one of those absentee landlords. It was a classic Warren Buffett situation, here I was paying this woman 3K/mo to rent her house and she got all that cash and had a property tax bill under $800. I was living there, using services no wonder the state is broke. For the amt I was paying, we should have had tremendous schools and police etc. But all that money just went to her, a rather numb and limited individual that happened to live in the bay area 25 years ago. What a gravy train for her, I'd like to cut these people off. |
