The case to formally recognize the 40th anniversary of Prop. 13 — a law passed in 1978 that placed caps and restrictions on California Property taxes, based on the purchase price of the home — failed to pass in committee earlier this week.

On Monday, the Committee on Revenue and Taxation failed to adopt ACR-247, a measure authored by Assemblymember Dante Acosta, R-Santa Clarita, that would have pushed the California Legislature to reaffirming their support of Prop. 13.

The vote failed with a 2-5-3 vote along party lines.

The resolution would have commemorated Wednesday, June 6, 2018 as the 40th anniversary of Prop. 13, also known as the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation.”

Passed in 1978, Prop. 13 required that properties be taxed at no more than 1 percent of their full cash value shown at the time of original purchase, and limited taxable value to the inflation rate or 2 percent, whichever was less, according to the original analysis of the bill.

Later propositions would expand on Prop. 13, making it possible for homeowners 55 years of age and older to transfer the taxable value of their original home to their new home, as well as allowing for children of homeowners to inherit the taxable value that their parents had.

Acosta expressed that he thought it was “unbelievable” that the Revenue and Taxation Committee did not want to show their support for the “only entity keeping property taxes affordable in California.”

“It’s unbelievable to me that we are not able to come together to reaffirm our support of a proposition that protects California’s homeowners and allows people to stay in their homes,” Acosta said in a statement on Friday. “Prop. 13 protects veterans, seniors on fixed incomes and all residents of this state who already struggle to afford the historically high cost of living.”

Acosta said on Thursday that Prop. 13 has a 65 percent approval rating with California voters, but that partisan politics is making it “increasingly difficult” for Sacramento legislatures to protect “our most vulnerable constituents.”

But it is important to note that Acosta’s ACR-247 would have only established a day of commemoration for Prop. 13, and by striking Acosta’s resolution down, the Democratic controlled Revenue and Taxation Committee did nothing to alter or repeal Prop. 13.

In fact, the only upcoming piece of legislation regarding Prop. 13 is Proposition 5, a ballot initiative for this coming November, and this measure would actually expand on the benefits already given to older-California homeowners.

But just because the only current action being considered against Prop. 13 is to its benefit, does not mean that there are not those who oppose the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation.”

On September 19, 2016, the Legislative Analyst’s office (LAO) — Sacramento’s bipartisan government body that provides fiscal and policy advice for the California legislature — published a report on Prop. 13.

The LAO report indicated that Prop 13 had led to a decline in local government revenue, a 250 percent difference between market value and assessed value for homes and gradually decreased the annual number of homes sold.

“Some evidence suggests that Prop. 13 may have increased homeownership for some older Californians, while decreasing it for younger Californians,” reads the report.

Opponents to Prop. 13 have labeled the law to be a “regressive tax” and have called for a “split roll” measure, revising the corporate property tax provisions from Prop. 13’s residential property rules. These revisions would have taxed a particular group of industrial and commercial property based on fair market value as opposed to the market value when the property was originally purchased.

And now opponents to Prop. 13 are looking at Prop. 5 as an initiative that would make the LAO’s problematic findings even worse.

“It doesn’t add housing, and it is going to make it harder for cities and counties to pay for schools, infrastructure and public safety to the tune of $2 billion per year,” said Assemblymember David Chiu, D-San Francisco, in reference to Prop. 5. “We’re in the midst of the most intense housing crisis our state has ever experienced, and this proposal does nothing to address it.”

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