The Scare Tactics That Backfired

Three days after California’s primary election, a neighbor who does post-doctoral research in the UCLA Department of History was complaining to me about my support for Proposition 13. His heart wasn’t in it, however, for he conceded I was in the best of company—every last one of his colleagues had voted for it too. Somewhat startled, I asked if he was actually referring to UCLA professors of history. “Of course,” he said, drooping; “they’ve all got tenure and own homes. That’s where liberalism has gone.”

In California, liberalism has indeed been gobbled up by the Tax Assessor’s office. Inflation has shot modest wage earners into marginal tax brackets of 30 to 40 per cent, thanks to the wonders of our progressive income tax system. And, despite the archaic Marxist rhetoric of some of Proposition 13’s more outrageous opponents, you do not have to be a millionaire to be stuck in a home that has gone from, say, $30,000 ten years ago to $70,000 today. For the privilege of living in a more expensive neighborhood without having to move, this sub-millionaire family must come up with about $2,500 each year—until the next reassessment, when it will have to pay more. The bottom line is clear: when today’s average family finishes paying its income, property, and sales taxes, it will have spent more on government than on its house, car, and food combined. When the middle class finally got “mad as heli” about this burden, the Establishment flinched, scrambled about, and began to panic; and in the end, it was this public sector panic that commended Proposition 13 to homeowners.

TH

About the Author

Tom Hazlett

Three days after California’s primary election, a neighbor who does post-doctoral research in the UCLA Department of History was complaining to me about my support for Proposition 13. His heart wasn’t in it, however, for he conceded I was in the best of company—every last one of his colleagues had voted for it too. Somewhat startled, I asked if he was actually referring to UCLA professors of history. “Of course,” he said, drooping; “they’ve all got tenure and own homes. That’s where liberalism has gone.”

In California, liberalism has indeed been gobbled up by the Tax Assessor’s office. Inflation has shot modest wage earners into marginal tax brackets of 30 to 40 per cent, thanks to the wonders of our progressive income tax system. And, despite the archaic Marxist rhetoric of some of Proposition 13’s more outrageous opponents, you do not have to be a millionaire to be stuck in a home that has gone from, say, $30,000 ten years ago to $70,000 today. For the privilege of living in a more expensive neighborhood without having to move, this sub-millionaire family must come up with about $2,500 each year—until the next reassessment, when it will have to pay more. The bottom line is clear: when today’s average family finishes paying its income, property, and sales taxes, it will have spent more on government than on its house, car, and food combined. When the middle class finally got “mad as heli” about this burden, the Establishment flinched, scrambled about, and began to panic; and in the end, it was this public sector panic that commended Proposition 13 to homeowners.