Report from California, Part Two
Aug. 21st, 2021 03:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenTo continue with Derek Sagehorn’s talk Thursday, Proposition 13 in California gets in the way of charging landowners for the benefits conferred on them by transit. [Passed in 1978, it cut the property tax to one percent of assessments, and prevented the assessment of a property from rising more than two percent per year, so long as the ownership remained the same. — NDR]. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, named after the man behind Proposition 13, also makes Special Assessment Districts difficult; the law is that only landowners can vote in SA district elections.
Special Assessment Districts were used in the early twentieth century, and in Los Angeles during the 1990s.
Mr. Sagehorn spoke of working with other organizations, not actively Georgist. Purchasing land in Oakland by the city government requires City Council approval for more than $100,000 (I think), and the average house costs $700,000 (including the land, of course).
A commenter spoke of a train station affecting land rents and prices not just in the immediate area, but in a bigger area, within about a half mile.
Mr. Sagehorn said that Proposition 15 in California failed; it would have reset commercial (not home) assessments to market values. Currently, corporations like Chevron own land that’s taxed on 1978 prices. The reformers will try again in a few years.
It is necessary to get business on board. The Twin Peaks tunnel, and its financing by land taxation, was supported by land speculators back in the early twentieth century; they would pay for it, but it created plenty of land value for them.
The underpinning of Proposition 13 feudalism is getting weak, and changes may become possible.
Special Assessment Districts were used in the early twentieth century, and in Los Angeles during the 1990s.
Mr. Sagehorn spoke of working with other organizations, not actively Georgist. Purchasing land in Oakland by the city government requires City Council approval for more than $100,000 (I think), and the average house costs $700,000 (including the land, of course).
A commenter spoke of a train station affecting land rents and prices not just in the immediate area, but in a bigger area, within about a half mile.
Mr. Sagehorn said that Proposition 15 in California failed; it would have reset commercial (not home) assessments to market values. Currently, corporations like Chevron own land that’s taxed on 1978 prices. The reformers will try again in a few years.
It is necessary to get business on board. The Twin Peaks tunnel, and its financing by land taxation, was supported by land speculators back in the early twentieth century; they would pay for it, but it created plenty of land value for them.
The underpinning of Proposition 13 feudalism is getting weak, and changes may become possible.
