Comments on: Dowell Myers on Proposition 13, Demographics and Housing: The New Reality After the Crash

By: Charles Hoch

Charles Hoch — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:54:22 +0000

The last chapter of my dissertation on suburban incorporation in the San Gabriel Valley of LA County describes Howard Jarvis’ failure to break up LA County into smaller jurisdictions using secession (oppopsed by Governor Jerry Brown) lead to the successful property tax initiative created with Paul Gann.

Homeowners were reeling from increasing local property taxes tied to rapidly appreciating home values. (Check out the steep slope of that housing market value line in Dowell Myers first table). Jarvis (a realtor from the San Gabriel area) argued first for geographic secession since he hoped to separate prosperous suburban clusters from county social and welfare budgets. Ironically, the frustrated effort to modify government boundaries to foster enhanced geogrpahic inequality ended up producing a much larger form of intergenerational inequality captured by Myer’s analysis.

By: quick hits « west north

quick hits « west north — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:39:50 +0000

[…] Proposition 13 really is a tax on newcomers and the young, according to research by Dowell Myers. Senior homeowners get an average of $1,000 a year, paid for by homeowners under […]

By: Melanie Curry

Melanie Curry — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:15:13 +0000

The missing information on commercial properties is a large part of the story of Prop 13. How many businesses remain in possession of their pre-Prop 13 properties, compared to homeowners? What is the difference in scale in terms of business tax savings (or should we call it state tax losses) vs. homeowner tax savings? The fact that commercial properties were included at all in Prop 13 may have as much to do with the passage of the “tax revolt” than Jarvis’ emotional appeal to homeowners. At the very least it helped fund the campaign.

By: Ormond Otvos

Ormond Otvos — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:14:13 +0000

Didn’t notice any analysis of young vs old earning capacity, effects on pensions, stability of neighborhoods on family expansion with near relatives taking over family homes, etc.

Seems a narrow analysis for that reason, and as a narrow analysis, suspect. Booms seem to be expected as a moral wash. They aren’t.

You’re right, using home values, and businesses as people has the usual personhood flaws. Business trumps good government. What’s new?

By: Dowell Myers on Proposition 13 « Sustainable Cities and Transport

Dowell Myers on Proposition 13 « Sustainable Cities and Transport — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:07:55 +0000

[…] Proposition 13. Randy Crane’s Urban Planning Research Blog* presents a summary of the report here. The full report can be found at his Population Dynamics Research Group […]