Letter: Property tax crisis replicates

Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005 | 9:12 a.m.

Prop. 13 scenario

Your editorial regarding the property tax petition authored by Assemblywoman Sharron Angle will not deter one property owner from signing the initiative. The last words of the editorial refer to "times of crisis." I suggest that there is a property tax crisis, and that is why the matter has reached the level of an initiative for a constitutional amendment.

These conditions replicate the same scenario I experienced in Los Angeles some 27 years ago, which resulted in the successful passage of California's Proposition 13. Without a doubt, Angle's initiative will receive the necessary 83,184 signatures to place the matter on the ballot.

When property values double in two years, and you have a substantial portion of the population on fixed or moderate incomes, you are courting a crisis. The problem could have been resolved by some proactive action on the part of the governor and the Legislature, which chose to ignore the smoke in the forest. Politicians recognize there is no political currency in being proactive, but the real political payoffs lie in being reactive!

There will be a constitutional amendment; the real issue is whether that amendment is properly conceived and well thought out, or just a copycat replication of another state's program designed for some political objective. The Sun's editorial staff should direct its editorial efforts toward addressing and solving a serious crisis-driven tax problem.

GIL EISNER

Editor's note: In the 1970s and 1980s the writer served as the executive deputy to the Los Angeles County assessor and also as senior deputy to a Los Angeles County supervisor. He developed the Los Angeles County position for property tax reform after the 1976 citizens' property tax revolt.