Re: [Phys-l] innumeracy - OT

[John Mallinckrodt <ajm@csupomona.edu>]

OT indeed, but you've scratched where I itch so ...

California's increasingly serious financial woes over the last couple  
of decades clearly represent in very large part the continuing long  
term devastation wreaked by Prop 13 which put a tight lid on property  
taxes three decades ago.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(1978)>

Prop 13 was a response to the very serious problem pointed to by  
Bob.  Indeed, it was posed at the time and still is as if it were the  
only possible solution.  I've never understood, however, why the more  
obvious solution isn't simply to allow some system of tax deferral.   
After all, if a house appreciates by a half million dollars there  
will come a time when money will be available to pay deferred taxes  
and I don't see any reason whatsoever why the person to whom that  
windfall accrues shouldn't be responsible for sending a portion of it  
back to the state so that it can continue to fund the education  
system, transportation infrastructure, recreational facilities, etc.  
that helped to made the state a desirable place to live and that, as  
a result, played a central role in producing that windfall in the  
first place.

It may be some measure of how vastly different the planet I live on  
is from this one, that I've rarely if ever heard anyone discuss this  
alternative in spite of its seeming obviousness to me--one who, by  
the way, would pay dearly if it were ever actually implemented.

John Mallinckrodt
Cal Poly Pomona

On Mar 1, 2008, at 5:28 PM, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:

> I realize that this is not the forum for this, but the value of a  
> home has little to do with the ability to pay taxes on the  
> property, especially if market value has outstripped wage  
> increases. You can't sell of a few bricks from a house to pay the  
> taxes, you have to dump the whole thing when you can't afford it Of  
> course, one could ban private ownership of homes and the government  
> could assign a few extra families to live with the homeowner.  
> Probably not too far fetched in Berkley :-)
>
> Bob at PC