Mayor Villaraigosa Proposes Prop 13 Reforms

Yesterday's Air Talk with Larry Mantle on KPCC here in Los Angeles featured a panel of Lenny Goldberg of the California Tax Reform Association, Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and myself.  The chief focus of the discussion was the suggestion by the Mayor that Prop 13 should be modified to allow for the introduction of a "split-roll" property tax under which commercial and industrial property would be taxed according to its fair market value, periodically assessed.  Under Prop 13, all real property--both residential and non-residential-- is taxed according to its acquisition value.  There is an abundance of good academic work on split-roll property taxes, including an especially good piece summarizing the economic arguments for a split-roll in California by Steven Sheffrin at Tulane (formerly at UC Davis) titled Economic Aspects of a Split-Roll Property Tax.  Governor Brown, who of course was governor when Prop 13 passed in June 1978, has indicated that he is not interested.