Property Taxes on the Ballot

Chris EdwardsThe most famous ballot question on fiscal policy is California ’s Proposition 13 passed in 1978. Voters passed the constitutional change to limit property taxes statewide by a large margin, 65 percent to 35 percent.Howard Jarvis led the drive for Proposition 13 and made the cover ofTime magazine, as shown. California property taxes are generally capped at one percent of purchase price plus an annual inflation factor. The large margin forProposition 13 passage was impressive given that only some voters are property owners while many are renters.This year Californians will decide whether to partly scrap the property tax limit.Proposition 15 would repeal the cap for commercial and industrial properties to raise taxes by up to $12 billion a  year. These properties would be assessed at market value, not purchase price.The teacher unions are the main funders of the campaign to pass Proposition 15. But Mark Zuckerberg and his wife,Priscilla Chan, have also contributed$7.1 million. The tax ‐​hike side has substantiallyout ‐​raised the opposition side of the ballot campaign.My intern, Hunter Brazal, helped me tally statewide votes on tax issues over the past decade fromBallotpedia. We found that voters supported the anti ‐​tax side on60 percent of income tax measures and76 percent of sales and excise tax measures.What about property taxes? We found 72 statewide property tax measures on the Ballotpedia list, many of which were narrow tax cuts for specific g...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs