This is of course complete myth.<p>First off, California property taxes are high already.  Why is it that Vancouver, BC property taxes are 1&#x2F;3 those of San Jose, with much higher property prices?  And their schools are 100 times better, as are most services.  It&#x27;s government waste.<p>From the deal with police officers in 2015: &quot;The one-year pay agreement, tentatively reached earlier in the week, calls for 8 percent raises, plus a 5-percent, one-time &quot;retention&quot; bonus and return incentive for officers who have left the force for other jobs. The current police contract expires at the end of the year.&quot;  13 percent is pretty good for a city that is purportedly suffering from money problems for the last decade.<p>Also, there are more than enough property sales in the last decade to equalize any &quot;losses&quot; from people who stayed in their houses, who are the far minority these days anyway.  In my neighborhood, there is so much turnover and so many young couples moving in, it&#x27;s crazy.  And for those couples who have stayed in their house for a few decades, I&#x27;m glad they have prop 13 to protect them.  There is no way that a retiree could afford to pay the $25k annual taxes that the rest of us do.  They deserve to live in their houses until they deem fit to leave, not because they are priced out of the market.