California Tinkering with Prop 13
- May 19, 2014
By Warren Olney
KCRW/NPR Host, "Which Way LA"
(CSUEB Sociology Professor Carl Stempel participated in this interview on Thursday, May 15).
"It's a cold day in Hell... Pigs are flying somewhere." That's the reaction of a Republican Assemblyman to the prospect that Proposition 13 might finally be amended, 36 years after California voters started a property tax revolt that went nationwide. A committee of the State Assembly has passed a bill to modify implementation of the landmark property tax law that any politician fears to touch — especially in an election year. Recent polls show new concern about how businesses use it to avoid paying taxes. Cynics say support for modest change is designed to ward off real reform. Homeowners won't be affected — yet. But some Prop 13 diehards worry that, "the camel's nose is under the tent." The California Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have dropped their opposition. But the signal that matters most comes from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, named for the man who led the property tax revolt in 1978.
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