WHO'S AFRAID OF PROPOSITION 13?

California Chronicle - July 28, 2009

By Ralph E. Stone

As the dust settles over another budget battle, we should expect some action to eliminate or at least ameliorate future budget battles. This should include changing the two-thirds rule to pass a budget and amending Proposition 13. California cannot continue to engage in battles each budget season. Because it could not find a supermajority to raise taxes, the state had to cut or reduce many of the public assistance programs serving as social safety nets for children, the poor, and the sick and the elderly. The Budget calls for taking $4.7 billion from the counties, which will force many counties to cut services even further. And again, the governor and the legislature had to resort to budget gimmickry to pass a budget, albeit an unbalanced one. It is time for change.

PROPOSITION 13

Proposition 13, an amendment to the California Constitution, passed by the voters in 1978, changed the way real property is reassessed. It also requires a two-thirds supermajority in both legislative houses for future increases in all state tax rates or amounts of revenue collected, including income tax rates. It also requires a two-thirds supermajority in local elections for local governments desiring to raise special taxes, but not general taxes, which go into a city's general fund. It only takes a simple majority to amend Proposition 13. Proposition 13 foreshadowed a so-called "taxpayer revolt" that swept the country in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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WHO'S AFRAID OF PROPOSITION 13?

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