(no subject)
Nov. 4th, 2026 12:02 pmWelp. Proposition 40 ("billionaire tax") failing while 42 passed (prohibit new personal property taxes, the whole point of it being to defang Prop 40) is going to completely screw over the California state budget. And while 40 was a statute, 42 is a constitutional amendment. We are so cooked. I've heard this situation referred to as "like Prop 13, but more" -- that is, the 1978 constitutional amendment that capped the rate of growth of assessment of the value of real property. That was good inasmuch as it meant millions of residents who otherwise would have been rapidly priced out of their homes have been able to stay in them (my own family included; the current tax base of our home is something like a tenth of what it would actually sell for on the open market) but it also meant the property tax revenue well dried up compared to what it had been, resulting in things like cuts to education and other things that would otherwise be for the public good. At least 43 (raise threshold for passing local special taxes to 67% instead of 50%), 45 (relaxing environmental review standards for projects) and 39 (voter ID) did not pass, but ugh.






