Claimed Homeowner Protections Easily Circumvented

For the past several months, local government interests, including the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties, have spent millions of dollars touting Prop. 99 as ironclad protection for Californians who fear having their homes seized by local governments to be turned over to private developers for strip-malls and other for-profit projects. But the list of property rights experts who reject this claim is growing. This is because Prop. 99 includes significant loopholes that will allow public agencies to continue to forcibly seize owner occupied homes and give them to wealthy and politically connected developers, even if the measure wins voter approval.

California faces a $14.5 billion budget deficit because the free-spending politicians in Sacramento have spent too much for too long. But instead of cutting wasteful spending in state government to pay down the deficit and balance the budget once and for all, the tax-and-spend majority in the Legislature wants to punish you and every California homeowner by repealing the state home mortgage interest deduction.

Eliminate Prop. 13, and your tax bill will soar, so that government (whose workers are paid more than most of us and who enjoy pensions far in excess of what most of us receive) won't have to live within its means. Many people would soon be taxed out of their homes.

Today, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the National Taxpayer Limitation Committee and the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights announced that they have introduced the "Taxpayer Protection Act of 2008," a ballot measure that strengthens existing laws that prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars for political activity by making it illegal for taxpayer financed organizations, such as the League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties and the California Redevelopment Association to finance their political activities through anonymous campaign accounts.

Many Utah residents argue that a solution to escalating property taxes would be for the Legislature to enact a Proposition 13-type law that would cap the rate at which local governments can tax properties.