More legislative scams to rob the people and enrich Sacramento

There are two key propositions on the ballot relating to property taxes:

1) Prop. 15- “Increase Funding For Public Schools, Community Colleges, and Local Gov’t. services by Changing Tax Assessment of Commercial and Industrial Property. Constitutional Amendment.

This would create what is being called a “split roll” property tax by re-assessing most commercial/business properties to current market value for property tax purposes, regardless of when they were purchased. There are some exclusions, primarily properties under $3m in value, agricultural properties, residential properties. Many people fear that allowing this Prop. to pass will activate a “slippery slope” towards coming after residential properties for higher tax assesments next. You will find my articles about this attached. The first attachment outlines the basics of the issue. The second one lays out the arguments FOR the proposition, and rebuttals. I have yet to write my 3rd article about this, which will be all the reasons why this is a bad idea… that is coming soon.

2) Prop. 19- ACA11- “The Home Protection for Seniors, Severely Disabled, Families, and victims of Wildfire or Natural Disasters Act”- This is written to sound like a win-win for folks over age 55, the severely disabled, fire victims who are home/property owners, by allowing them to transfer their current primary residence’s taxable value to a home of equal or lesser value anywhere in the state up to 3 times. Currently it can only be transferred once within counties that have reciprocal agreements. However, this will actually overturn Prop. 58 ( passed in 1986) which allows a parent or grandparents  to transfer these properties to children/grandchildren at their current taxable value, and will force re-assessment upon transfer to current market value, unless the transferee makes it their primary residence. This will result in tens of thousands ( 40,000-60,000) homes being re-assessed to higher taxable property values, according to the Calif. Legislative Analyst’s Office. Of course, this would result in family members selling off inherited properties if the tax hit is too much for them.

Good for Realtors, not good for everybody else.  Guess who sponsored this bill…?  Yep – The California Association of Realtors.