Fix Proposition 13

Preface: My letter to the Editor of the local paper, the Tribune, followed a story about a redevelopment agency that is trying to prevent the payment of property tax revenue to the school district. I have found that letters commenting on a paper's story are much likelier to be printed. For those outside of CA, our infamous "Proposition 13" was a voter initiative passed in 1978 that limited property reassessments to a 1% annual increase, unless the property is sold.

+Orval Osborne, delegate from sunny California

Fix Proposition 13

Pismo Beach should allow the school district to get its share of property tax revenue because that was the pact they made 20 years ago.

But this points out our huge sleeper issue: The tax system is dysfunctional. How should the schools, local, state and federal governments get their tax revenues? Let's begin with property tax.

Proposition 13 was a necessary step for people, individual homeowners, who were facing unaffordable property tax increases 30 years ago. But an unintended consequence of Proposition 13 has been to shift the tax burden from corporations onto the people. Properties are reassessed at the time of sale. Corporations hold onto their properties much longer than people do. People move every 5 years on average. Corporations can live forever and profit off property that has not been reappraised since 1978.

Proposition 13 was intended for homeowners, especially elderly people, and not for corporations. Therefore, Proposition 13 benefits should be restricted to homeowners. Updating business property assessments would generate more tax revenue from corporations, bring fairness to the property tax and raise much needed revenues for Pismo Beach and Lucia Mar. Let's fix this broken property tax deal.

Orval Osborne

San Luis Obispo