Tax Cuts From ’70s Confront Brown Again in California

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

LOS ANGELES — The last time Jerry Brown was governor of California, voters passed Proposition 13, drastically slashing local property taxes and constraining lawmakers from raising any other taxes. Mr. Brown first fought the proposition but then executed it with gusto and sent billions of dollars from the state to school districts and counties to help offset the lost revenues.

That may be a decision that Mr. Brown has come to regret, as his career has come full circle and taken him back to Sacramento 33 years later to confront yet another budget crisis.

As much as Proposition 13 signaled a national revolt against taxes that reverberates to this day, its actual legacy in California — not just the proposition itself, but the way Mr. Brown and the Legislature responded to it — has emerged as a major obstacle to the new governor as he confronts what is probably the worst fiscal crisis in this state’s history.

The measure cut off a major source of revenue by capping property taxes at 1 percent of valuation and required a two-thirds vote by the Legislature to raise taxes. And because it cut property tax collections by local government by nearly two-thirds, the state, initially at Mr. Brown’s behest, took on more and more costly responsibility for financing schools, welfare and other services that were once the responsibilities of local governments.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us/09calif.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[No Elephants]

1. What biased POS writing!

"executed it with gusto" Really? What choice does Chief Executive of California have BUT to execute what California voters and legislature voted for, yet try to keep schoolsgoing?

What "gusto?" Was he rubbing his hands together and squealing gleefully?

He opposed Prop 13, but now, the inevitable results of it are HIS fault?

BULLSHIT!

[saras]

2. POS is too good for it

Shit, after all, can be made into compost. This is toxic waste, pure and simple - look, it's from way back in the seventies and it's still toxic. Shit just don't stink for that long, it turns to soil.

Who WROTE and FUNDED the campaign for Prop 13? That's who I hold responsible. Even more so than the ignorant voters that fell for it.

[rpannier]

3. Howard Jarvis

If you ever see the first Airplane movie he plays the guy waiting in the Taxi

[droidamus2]

4. Who wrote it and more importantly

Who backed it? The people with the money, the same ones that cry now because they might be asked to give another 3% out of their millions to help support this country. It's interesting that Prop 13 was sold as a way to keep the elderly from being taxed out of their homes, yet it has been used to protect business properties from being taxed.

[hadrons]

5. Howard Jarvis, shill of the big shot real estate moguels