I applaud your efforts to reform Proposition 13, but I hope you understand that the only right, just, humane, moral thing to do with Proposition 13 is to get rid of it completely.

* It creates extreme injustices among homeowners of varying ages or inheritances. People stupid enough to have been born recently are forced to pay much higher property taxes on identical properties that their earlier-born neighbors pay a pittance on -- unless, of course, they were born to parents who owned such property. Is this any way to run a tax system? Anywhere? In a country dedicated to the proposition that we're all created equal?? * It underfunds vital services. Taxes on land value are the most just way to fund local services -- it matches up the services a property owner receives from the commons, from public investment, with the cost of providing those services. The services that drive up property values should be paid for from those property values. (Buildings do not appreciate; they depreciate, at 1.5% per year, according to the FRB.) * It forces tenants -- of which California has a very large number -- to pay twice, first to their landlord in the form of extremely high rents, and then again in the form of sales and wage taxes. This is just plain wrong. It makes landlords very rich, and tenants even poorer. How can you justify a structure designed to do that, if you believe we're all created equal. Yes, collecting and keeping the portion of the rent that is for the building itself is fair and just -- but most of California' rent is not for buildings but for land -- and the land portion is rightly common treasure.

Do you know that California has the 4th lowest homeownership rate in the US? In light of that, what do you make of the fact that California's seniors actually have a higher homeownership rate than their counterparts in the remainder of the US? Proposition 13 is largely responsible. Seniors continue to occupy homes in areas with good schools, jobs nearby -- homes with more rooms than they need, and, as they age, more rooms than they can clean, cool, heat, maintain. Meanwhile, younger working people, with children, must commute long hours from homes they can barely afford -- often with much higher property taxes due to their own unfortunate birth years -- to jobs in the urban centers. This is a dumb way to structure a society, an economy, a community, particularly as energy supplies grow scarce and pollution a problem. Get rid of Prop 13, and this situation will improve itself. Young families who need family-sized homes, close to jobs, will be able to afford them, and the private sector will produce housing that suits the special needs of California's seniors.

How? Tell the assessors that they need to become assessors again, and value every property in California, at its current market value. Value the land first, and then, if you must, value the buildings at their depreciated replacement value. Then tax all the land value at the same rate -- just as if you actually believed that we were all created equal!, whether it is the Irvine property, the LA Country Club, Mono Lake -- whatever! All created equal! 1% of California's real land value will fund an awful lot of services. California doesn't even know how much land value it has!

But that isn't even the best part of correcting California's taxes. Rather, it will bring California's economy alive again.

And if California is really as smart as it might be, they might decide that it makes sense 5 years from now to reduce the sales taxes and other taxes, and increase the land value tax to 2% or even a bit more. But I don't know that California is quite that wise.

I hope you'll explore the reasons why Prop 13 is unjust and counterproductive, and take on the really major task of eradicating it. Consider it the Great Adventure of the 21st century ... a fitting followup to Luke North's GA nearly 100 years ago.