Proposition 13: Winners and Losers

Perched along the main line of the San Andreas fault, as we were for a fortnight following June 6, we could feel the continuous rumble of the after-shocks of the Jarvis-Gann earthquake. Proposition 13 had, in fact, features that guaranteed turmoil following its eruption.

According to its terms, the reduction in the real property tax (to 1 per cent of the 1975 assessment) became effective on July 1, the start of the fiscal year for the municipalities and sundry local commissions (water, sewage, garbage, schools, etc.) that have been getting funds from property taxes. Proposition 13 forbids new substitute taxes except on a two-thirds vote of the legislature—a lengthy route. The local budgets had to be squeezed into some semblance of solvency in a month.

JB

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James Burnham

Perched along the main line of the San Andreas fault, as we were for a fortnight following June 6, we could feel the continuous rumble of the after-shocks of the Jarvis-Gann earthquake. Proposition 13 had, in fact, features that guaranteed turmoil following its eruption.

According to its terms, the reduction in the real property tax (to 1 per cent of the 1975 assessment) became effective on July 1, the start of the fiscal year for the municipalities and sundry local commissions (water, sewage, garbage, schools, etc.) that have been getting funds from property taxes. Proposition 13 forbids new substitute taxes except on a two-thirds vote of the legislature—a lengthy route. The local budgets had to be squeezed into some semblance of solvency in a month.