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Prop 5 -- Extend Prop 13 to Seniors
Gah! What?! An extension of prop 13? Usually, when someone moves into a new home, they pay property taxes based on what they just paid for their new home. However, there are currently some one-time exceptions (to Prop 13) that allow new homeowners who are 55 and older, severely disabled, or affected by a natural disaster to pay property taxes at a lower rate.
Wait, what’s prop 13? Could it be another ghost of elections past? Let’s hold seance…. Hold hands… lower the shades… ready?
THE GHOST OF ELECTIONS PAST PRONOUNCES….
“I am the ghost of Prop 13 (passed in 1978), who set property taxes at 1% of the value as assessed in 1974 -- or when the property changed ownership or had new construction. I limited Prop Tax increases. I make new home buyer taxes high, and keep existing homeowner taxes low.”
Got that? Moving back to the present now… Prop 5 would expand Prop 13 exceptions so that they apply regardless of what county a homeowner moves to, for an unlimited number of moves, and so that if he/she moves to a more expensive home he/she wouldn’t have to pay as much in property taxes as they would under the current rules.
Property taxes go to public schools and local governments. The legislative analysis says that schools and local governments could lose over $100 million per year over the next few years and that annual loses could eventually grow to over $1 billion per year. The state would need to spend more money on these services instead."
Proponents argue that when seniors move out of their oversized houses into smaller houses, this makes more family-sized housing available for younger generations. Opponents argue that prop 5 primarily benefits wealthy seniors and real estate agents, while doing nothing to ensure that homes are affordable to younger generations...and it hurts public schools! Ouch!
We foresee this hurting low-income rural counties the most when wealthy seniors retire there in more expensive homes than they had before...while paying relatively low property taxes. Counties won’t get to decide whether to allow this (as they currently have the power to do) and so a lot of their funding could potentially leave. Prop 5 doesn’t do much to help middle class and working class seniors or disabled people who already have the option of downsizing and keeping their tax break in participating counties.
The League of Women Voters is against it. CA Democratic and Republican parties endorse it. Opponents are the Berniecrats, newspapers, and the Green Party.
If we said “here’s for the kids!” on the last prop, why not do it for the seniors on this one? Yo, voties, ‘cause not all seniors need this assistance and this prop is not for need-based benefits.
Straw Poll
Yes -- 0; No -- 14; Undecided -- 1
