&gt; This applies to everything else governed by a market, why shouldn&#x27;t it apply to property taxes?<p>Taxes aren&#x27;t governed by a market; the same rules don&#x27;t apply.  Arguments against government protectionism in markets don&#x27;t also apply to protection against the actions of the government itself.<p>That said, proposition 13 doesn&#x27;t seem like a good implementation of this.  There&#x27;s no good reason for a sudden increase upon sale; that breaks the ability to buy a home.  There should be a hard cap on property taxes that <i>doesn&#x27;t</i> change on sale.<p>Why should taxes get to increase without bound or control on existing property?  Once you&#x27;ve paid off your home, you should not have an ever-growing expense to keep it.<p>(You shouldn&#x27;t have an expense to keep it at all, but that&#x27;s a separate argument.)