For the 34 years since the passage of Prop 13, advocates for higher taxes have complained about inadequate CA property tax revenue. But the one thing ALL such critics have in common is that they NEVER show the actual revenue shortfall. They never provide the figures.
They never compare the property tax revenue collected in 1977 (the year before the big Prop 13 drop when everything was supposedly hunky dory) with the property tax revenue being collected today.
Why? For one of two reasons. And ONLY one.
1. They don’t know the figures. Never checked. Even supposed financial gurus haven’t a clue what the numbers are. They just INTUITIVELY know that the revenues are woefully inadequate. After all, this “massive revenue shortfall” has been endlessly cited by fellow leading California “progressives” for decades, so most liberals mindlessly conclude that it MUST be true.
2. They DO know the figures. But they intentionally omit them, as such figures DESTROY their argument. For it turns out – compared to property tax revenue collected the year BEFORE Prop 13 passed – in the more populous counties (over 85% of the CA population live in such counties), such PROPERTY TAX REVENUES HAVE GROWN FASTER THAN INFLATION AND POPULATION COMBINED!
http://riderrants.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-defense-of-proposition-13-property.html
I just wish the press would report this amazing, counterintuitive fact. They never have, as far as I know.