[FoRK] How Barack lost my vote forever

[Jonathan S. Knoll]

(Clarification: Never re-assessed while you own it. Re-appraisal is done for
every new owner.)

On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 3:59 PM, Jonathan S. Knoll <fork at jonathanknoll.com>
wrote:

> Well, actually, California's property taxes might be high, but due to Prop
> 13, property values are never re-assessed. As a result, in-state mobility in
> California is pathetically low because it is not economically viable to sell
> a home you've lived in for years (because your next place -- even if its
> value were less -- could cost you ten times more in taxes). This is why
> California's economy is screwed. It is a state awash with multi-million
> dollar homes, and many of them pay next to nothing in property tax.
>
> So why is California screwed? Because the sweet old couple living near the
> center of town can NEVER sell their home, and, in fact, as a favor to their
> kids, they'll pass it (and its beautifully low property tax) down to them to
> boot. Consequently, as metro-areas grow, they expand exponentially outward,
> because people can't afford to buy near the city centers. Eventually, they
> give up and just move away.
>
> /jsk
>
> (Sorry if this got posted twice. I think I sent it from the wrong address
> initially.)
>
> On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 3:41 PM, Adam L Beberg <beberg at mithral.com> wrote:
>
>
> > California tried the high taxes thing, currently the highest state,
> > sales, and property taxes in the country.
> >
> > So 20% of the richest Californians left in the last few years. So yes,
> > taxing the rich works, the evil capitalists left, we're rid of them, yay!
> > Hurray for socialism!
> >
> > ...and now CA is 16 billion in the hole for just this year. Turns out
> > only those tippy top few percent actually pay more in taxes then they cost
> > the state in services, oops! Not that that was obvious or anything.
> >
> > Wealth is very very concentrated, and any country/state that doesn't
> > cater to those people loses their economic viability. California and the US
> > for the most part has lost it.
> >
> > --
> > Adam L. Beberg
> > http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/ <http://www.mithral.com/%7Ebeberg/>
> >
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>
>