How has Prop. 13 affected tax distribution in Santa Clara County?
Why should we care about single family property taxes set at the time of purchase?<p>People move, and sell, or pass away and their families then acquire the property and must decide what to do. There’s a reasonable question to discuss about prop 13 passing from parents to children, but in general property turnover on single family homes in the US are 5-7 years. Focusing on this part of prop 13 is almost intended to cause people to fight each other rather than the real problem.<p>Corporations don’t pass away. Even when they are acquired by other corporations, they try to block reassessment of property. I can’t at the moment find what happened with the taxes after all of the bank acquisitions in 2008, but I do remember them fighting any increases based on the fact that the property did not change hands.<p>There are other corporate properties in CA that also have never increased their tax bill, such as Disneyland. So as we consider removing prop 13 protections from corporations in 2020, let’s remember that corporations don’t die, but people (sadly) on the other hand do. Any correction in the market of taxes on your home is setup almost exactly the way we want. People on a fixed income don’t need to worry about paying more, while people benefiting from the current economy can.