For Drew and Rick – You both bring up valid issues. My wife and I have a very good friend who lives in Idaho. Yes, before I continue I know California is not Idaho, however, in Idaho and I understand other states as well, being in the State Legislature is not their full time job. They do have other jobs where they bring in income. They meet several times a year or as necessary if something comes up and they serve their state.

Drew, I can appreciate your views, truly, but I think your examples might be a bit extreme – though I understand and appreciate the points you’re making. I think that if something like paying minimum wage to elected officials went through, then of course, safe guards would remain in place. Who would pay for those safe-guards to be inforced? Our entire tax structure needs to be re-designed. My thoughts are one way to go, but, as you point out, they can’t stand alone without the rest of this state’s issues being addressed.

I understand a Constitutional Congress might be convened next year. I think that would be a wonderful thing if we can get past the politics and really look at our issues.

I agree with the people who have mentioned water here. We’re on hideous (but very necessary) water restrictions in Los Angeles. I have a feeling we’ve only begun to see the repercussions of looming water wars.

Re: Prop 13; no need to really be concerned here. Those who originally benefited are dying off. Those who can qualify under the extremely narrow rules (children mentioned in wills or trusts only) are few and far between – they’ve moved away. Prop 13 is dying out and dissolving as older Californian’s sell to move to less expensive states. Most of the people who are still grandfathered under Prop 13 will most likely lose their homes to the tax man if that protection is taken away as they are existing on Social Security. If that happens, I guess the government will have a nice assortment of homes for other people to purchase, just as the banks (who are adding to their collection of inventory through forclosure) have now.

@shai–OK, I’ll bite. Under your plan, I could quit my part-time job at Carl’s Jr and go work as a trauma doc–after all, you did say ALL public servants. I could prescribe as I saw fit, cut as I saw fit, kill as I saw fit–and who would bust me, my co-workers who became cops and judges? Or maybe we’d all be killed by an overpass collapsing in a 3.5 quake, because that new engineer in charge of a seismic retrofit knows more about pickles per burger than tensile strength standards for reinforced concrete. Your fantasy, baby, I’m just taking pix of it and sharing them.

I’m not down on California. I think it’s been one of America’s shining achievements. I think it can continue to be. I think Prop 8 was a hiccup, as were the troubles in the early 90s (which resulted in huge migrations to SLC, Denver, Portland, Seattle, and Nashville, among other places–migrations still reshaping those cities). Right now though, Cali is in a place where its residents are as hands-off from responsibility as its elected officials. Both parties have engineered themselves into largely secure constituencies, and both parties have bought electoral stability by giving the public more services than the revenue stream can possibly cover. The notion of a “right” to stay in a house which has a million-dollar view and lot, in a major urban area, but which owes less in taxes than a trailer in a floodplain in Ventura–that’s fiscally unsustainable. That’s wilfully creating a revenue structure more precarious than DC’s, and in Cali there’s no meddling Congress to blame. If Cali doesn’t do something to balance revenues and expenditures, it won’t have the fiscal ability to accomodate next-wave businesses. It will become more like Mexico–beautiful, and full of potential, but so crippled by delusions and self-imposed wounds that it can’t achieve as much as it can dream. As a non-resident admirer, I would like to see California take some strong and necessary medicine rather than give up its fundamental strengths.

I built a new home on the coast recently and was RAPED by the local tax assessor. I know pay about 40% of the original assessment because I threatened to sue her and have her fat butt locked up in jail. Using “assessed value” that is determined by the market is patently unfair. they can be completely subjective. In my case she told me she loved my home…so much she assessed it FOUR TIMES other homes in my area, some with better views, all of them larger than mine.

In other areas I’ve owned property way under-assessed because the town hasn’t spent the money to change things. The house I’m in now is assessed at half the others on my street because it was in disrepair when I bought it. They’ve already started jacking it up with the new roof and other much needed repairs. By the time I’m done it will be assessed HIGHER than my neighbors!

All this to pay for school. Think about it, how does property value affect the amount of expense you cause the school district?

I’ve been advocating for a bedroom tax, not a value tax. The more bedrooms, the more potential kids to educate, the more you pay (I really would want simply a fee for breeders to send their kids but that is probably illegal).

At least in California you know exactly what you are going to pay. I was looking at property in Lake Tahoe and I asked the realtor what the taxes were, she looked at me like I had two heads. The taxes are going to be what you pay for the house, duh! It is a very simple situation. You pay based on what you pay, the next guy pays based on what he pays you, etc. Elderly people in their homes for years aren’t forced out of their homes.

People who aren’t wealthy don’t have to pay more in taxes because wealthy people move into the neighborhood.

My mom paid 75k for her home in the 70’s…houses on her street have sold north of $2M…she has to constantly fight to keep her tax bill fair. Another neighbor took the heat out of their second floor and claimed it is storage space to reduce their bill! It is just crazy.

Prop 13 makes perfect sense to me. Just because the idiots you elect can’t manage the money is no reason to blame a 100% fair system..the best one I’ve ever heard of.

@shai: Paying politicians less seems like a great idea, but it only compounds the problem that only the wealthy can run for office anyway. If you know that the job you’re going to be running for means that there’s no way in heck that you can feed yourself, you’re not going to take it. Good, talented people still have financial lives to worry about. The very wealthy control politics right now because they can afford to privately support themselves in addition to their state-earned incomes already. State service might make you feel good but we can’t feed ourselves on positive feelings and a moral compass alone.

I don’t blame Prop 13. I don’t blame immigrants, illegal or not. I do put the blame squarely on the elected representatives who have run our state into the ground using political gain, LGBT equality, women’s reproductive rights and racial equality as their grist.

My suggestion to all who live here: use the initiative process to put a measure on an upcoming ballot which clearly states that public service is just that – and all who are elected WILL RECEIVE MINIUM WAGE ONLY. PERIOD. No perks. Serving your state is your perk. NO HEALTH CARE – unless you supply it yourself, just like most folk. I don’t think this initative will rob us of the best and brightest – unless the brigands we have and have had in office qualify as such. People whow WANT to serve, do simply that.

I doubt my wife and I will leave California. We are one of the 18,000 and we believe that means we have a responsibility to help our sisters and brothers regain the right of marriage (or the right not to marry if that’s their choice – key word here – choice).

I hold out hope that our state will regain its footing – but I don’t hold it too close or too tightly.