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By Jon Coupal
The tax-and-spend lobby loves to blame Proposition 13 for all of California’s woes. This has become so routine that we at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association have compiled a “Top 10” list of things for which Proposition 13 is alleged to be responsible.
Keep in mind that these are more than just general complaints that “Prop 13 prevents unlimited taxes on property.” We gladly accept the blame for that one. But most of the attacks lack foundation and many are just flat out laughable.
One of our favorites is the column penned for a small local paper by a physical education teacher who cited Proposition 13 as the reason the shot putters on his track team kept losing the heavy iron balls. It seems that the young athletes were unable to recover the shots in the high grass, and it was due to Proposition 13 that there was no money to keep the grass trimmed.
Then there was the columnist who blamed Proposition 13 for the not guilty verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. According to the author’s logic, Proposition 13 prevented Los Angeles from paying enough to hire the best investigators.
Of course, no criticism of Prop. 13 would be complete without bringing up the obligatory trope about how it “starved” education. This myth is harder to kill than a vampire despite incontrovertible data showing that per pupil spending, adjusted for inflation, is at least 30% higher now than the years leading up to Prop. 13’s passage in 1978.
Other societal ills for which Proposition 13 is alleged to be at fault: The increase in rates of obesity and the reduction in the number of choral singers. Seriously. We’re not making this stuff up.
To read the entire column, please click here
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