|
| Support the New And Improved Prop 13 grassroots campaign initiative!!! |
| Cars & Trucks, Etc. : American : Eagle |
| 03/15/06 |
Prop 13 was intended to prevent senior citizens from being forced out of their homes. Instead, it has prevented young couples from being able to afford homes, causing lawmakers to pass crazy laws like the Affordable Housing Act, which diverts tax dollars to private developers through "Redevelopment Agencies" to acquire and build housing units that are given away to friends of people that work in government or friends of people who work for the most vociferous, chummy (& wealthy) "non-profit" organizations. The net result is a reduction in State tax revenue and dramatic reduction in number of units available for needy families to be able to rent/buy, driving up the cost of living space for honest working people of all income levels.
The only way to make the cronyistic system fair is to revamp Prop 13.
The first and foremost element of the program would be that seniors between the age of 65-75 would pay taxes only 50% of the level of the normal rate on their primary residence. For tax filers over the age over 75, the property tax rate would drop to 10% of what market rate taxes would otherwise be.
The New And Improved Prop 13 would include 4 property type classifications:
* Residential
* Commercial
* Unimproved Land, lot size >= 40 acres (forest, desert, agri, etc)
* Unimproved land, lot size >1 acre, in zip code regions with population density >1000/km2
Properties with mix-use can be petitioned to have proportional taxation (eg: 80% residential, 20% commercial, or single residence on 200 acre lot). Assessments would be based on market value of the property. Market value would be determined by a uniform formula reassessed every 5 years, based on square footage, acreage, and comps of market value of homes sold as determined by listing values and other factrors. However, it is the responsibility of the assessor to err on the low side. If a homeowner/landowner disagrees with an assessment, they have a right to request reappraisal from an independent appraiser..
There is a check/balance, though, to people cheating the system. At anytime, a person has the right to check the property tax rolls and bid on a house/property if they feel it is undervalued. The bid must be 125% of the current value and before a bid can be accepted, cash in the amount of 50% of the bid value must be placed in an escrow account. The property owner then has 12 months to either accept the offer to sell the house, or increase their base property tax value to that of 80% of what the person bid on the property. While the cash is in the escrow account, the interest shall go to the property owner.
So, under the New And Improved Prop 13 rules, that mansion that Feinstein has at the top of Pacific Heights would not longer be assessed at $200,000 (or whatever). The fair market value of $4,000,000 would be reflected on the property tax tolls, whether Feinstein or someone else owned it. However, that doesn't mean the amount of tax income taken in by the state would be significantly more...
New tax rates would be drastically reduced from the current 1% to a fair rate:
* residential: 0.25%
* commercial: 0.50%
* unimproved > 40 acres (agri, etc): 0.1%
* private open space, inner city: -0.1% (i.e., receive a credit)
Cities that want to encourage public access to privately-owned open space, but don't want to pay to acquire & maintain parks could further provide tax credits to land-owners that devote land to open space AND allow public access. The same could be done by wetlands activists to pay farmers and landowners to leave their productive land undeveloped. Using zoning laws and the "endangered Species Act" to protect the yellow-spined dickweed beetle is a ridiculous perversion of the of the law that Congress passed in 1973 to protect previously endangered animals like the bald eagle and mountain lion and completely misses the intent of the legislation.
With respect to the New And Improved Prop 13, if an 80 year old couple purchased Feinstein's Pac Heights 3rd home for $4 million with the intent of using it as their primary residence, the property tax they would have to pay on the property would be:
4,000,000.00 * 0.0025 * 0.10 = $1000.00
If a 67 year old bought it, the property tax would be:
4,000,000.00 * 0.0025 * 0.50 = $5,000.00
If a 35 year old bought it, the property tax would be:
4,000,000.00 * 0.0025 = $10,000.00
If Diane Feinstein decided she wanted to keep the property, but didn't want it to be her primary residence, she could accept the re-adjustment bid of $4 million (from previous value of $200,000 = property tax bill of $2,000), and pay taxes of:
4,000,000 * 0.0025 * 0.8 = $8,000.00
If Feinstein instead decided to claim this house as her primary residence, she would, as a 73 year old woman, pay the 65-75 year old discount (50% off), get the 80% less than the bid price discount , thus paying the following property taxes:
4,000,000.00 * 0.0025 * 0.5 * 0.8 = $4,000.00
The commercial building down the street which is also valued at $4 million would have a tax bill of:
4,000,000 * 0.005 = $20,000.00
The building worth $4 million with mixed use of 33% commercial and 66% residential would have a bill of:
4,000,000.00 * ((0.0025 * 0.66) + (0.005 * 0.33)) = $13,333
The rancher with 180 acres of pastures in Kern County and 600 acres of timber forests that are actively harvested in Siskyo County, each with a market value of $300,000 (currently assessed at $45,000) would pay the following taxes:
(300,000 + 300,000) * 0.001 = $6,000.00 (compared with $9000)
Contact you state senator and assemblyman by emailing them this post to indicate your support for the New And Improved Prop 13! Tell your friends, too!
|
|
