September 30, 1998

Turn it over. You'll learn more

Harry Golden, the wise Jewish philosopher and writer who once published the Carolina Israelite, found it more interesting to read the wrong side of an old newspaper clipping than the side for which it had been saved. I agree. I recently found a page from a 1951 Santa Rosa Press Democrat, saved by my mother. It contained an army publicity shot of me. I doubt any of my contemporaries rushed down to enlist after seeing that haircut. We were gullible back then, but even we had limits. On the opposite side of the page were letters to the editor, including one from a "Wife, mother and housewife."

Her lament? She wanted to know how an average working man could afford to pay $65 to $100 a month to rent a house, and afford the other expenses of a household. She also railed on about landlords who wouldn't rent to families with children. All she wanted was a two bedroom home where her three children, the oldest six, were welcome. Landlords were heartless, she felt, to charge more than she could afford. I wonder how any landlord could have charged her, even then, what she felt she could afford and remain in business?

To put this in perspective, San Mateo County in 1951 was paying Social Workers $256 a month, $31 a month more than Sonoma County. In all likelihood the family of that writer earned substantially less than $200 a month.

Inflation has been with us continually for the life of the Republic. The only time in the last 90 years when there was no inflation was during the Depression. No one wants that.

That leaves the choice of rampant inflation or slow and steady inflation. Inflation of housing prices during the seventies opened the way for a pair of demagogues, Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann, to set a trap for the average homeowner and the average voter of California. It was called Prop. 13. Though its real purpose was to help out the corporations and the apartment house owners of the state, Jarvis and Gann baited the hook with a partial tax freeze. Homeowners had been watching the "value" of their property go up, and with it the taxes. Trouble was, they couldn't get the value back unless they sold their homes. Catch 22.

_With Prop. 13, corporations and commercial landlords benefited most. The longer an owner holds property, the more he benefits. Corporations can "live" forever. A homeowner normally might move on in three to ten years. Meanwhile, schools are shortchanged, libraries squeezed, and cities like Pacifica are shoved to the edge of the cliff financially. Prop. 13 has brought a rich, proud state like California to a point where the states of Alabama and Mississippi are doing better by their children than we do by ours. This is outrageous.

Homeowners in 1978 had a legitimate grievance. We can't go back to 1977. But corporations and commercial landlords need to pay more of their share of the property tax burden. And it's ridiculous one-third of the voters can outvote two-thirds in tax elections. Even if it's considered unreasonable to allow a majority of one vote over half to swing an election, surely a 55/45 ratio is sufficient to demonstrate the public's true opinion.

Paul Azevedo has paid his taxes in Pacifica for 35 years. It hasn't got much easier. His e-mail address is reactor@wenet.net