This is just another byproduct of how the burdon of responsibility for carrying the rest of the community on our backs is manifested. Just a short time ago, there was an article that explained how we were supporting the illegal population to the tune of over $85 million just in the schools alone. Where do you suppose that money came from? From taxes levied by our government by way of income and property tax.

Rather than a proposition 13 bill, why not just change the way the State of Utah collects taxes. By introducing a FLAT SALES TAX and eliminating income and property tax, those who have will spend and those who have lesser, will also spend, just not as much. In the end, the state will still have plenty of income to fund programs and the distribution will be more fair including those who currently pay no taxes either by fraud or status.

And to think in this climate people are proposing equalization schemes and school districts splits that will require additional property tax increases? Unbelievable.

Prop 13 worked precisely because it was in California. A perfect storm of the booming Silicon Valley, spiraling property values and a giant sales and business base. If taxes can only increase 2 percent a year, how does California increase and average of 7.5 percent a year? The money has to (and has) come from elsewhere. Does Utah have a Silicon Valley ready to pop up and pump hundreds of millions, maybe billions into the economy to make up the shortfall? Does Utah have a giant business base of which to saddle the needed local tax increases (really, 2 percent increases are going to pay for all services?). Finally, the incredible increases in the California real estate market created a huge tax windfall when properties sold. Does that look like it will happen in Utah? In the middle of a huge nationwide real esate contraction? The only real way to lower taxes to to cap spending. Plain and simple. ..oh, and a flat sales tax to pay for everything? Guess what? Everyone can't win. the money still has to come from somewhere. If its not you, its your neighbor. If its not your neighbor, then you'll be the one to pay!

Oh boo-hoo. So the tax went up a thousand bucks on your over-inflated, over-rated, over-valued piece of land. Guess that's the down side to agreeing to pay the mortgage company for a home that apparently either must satiate your elitist and consumer-driven tastes (why else would anyone finance--or re-finance--a home priced above $250,000 these days), or you got stuck with it from an estate inheritance, which should have left provisions to find remedy for housing market shifts.

Pay your taxes, quit complaining and continue the economic turnaround by cooling, heating, furnishing and keeping up with the Joneses with your monolithic, egomaniacally-charged living space.

We don't need a manipulated price on our homes. We need to be using the last sale price to determine the taxable value. They should be one and the same. Setting the taxable value at the last sale price would then allow us to know that we could expect our taxes to be directly related to the budget of the taxing entity. This would be the case year in and year out, and then when the house sells, the new value placed on the house would become the taxable value.

Presently, we have an entire auditor's staff out re-evaluating property, which in and of itself, is a waste of taxpayer money.

Letting some auditor determine the taxable value allows for largely unseen manipulation. The taxing entity can raise more money by doing this, when they should be going to the voters and saying: Here is the budget, here is the mill levy rate, and here is what we expect to collect in taxes. This way, the public knows what is happening.

Allowing an auditor to raise taxes by inflating the taxable value is an underhanded way to raise more tax money without going to the public with a budget and the associated mill levy request.

Where can I sign a petition to see something similar to prop 13. Not everyone will sell there homes and gain from the sale of said home. It is morally wrong for us to pay the burden for the new growth that is occuring in this state by increased property taxes for new schools being built. I say do away with the increases and chanrg an impact fee to the individuals moving into the area that are causing the need for new schools. My propery taxes went up 35% when will this insanity end. I know retirees who have seen there taxes jump thousands, and this means they have to come out of retirement to help fund the schools.

The problem is in the tax tables used for valuation. They must not be adjusted for the rapid rise in home valuations. You can't tell me that government spending is going up to the tune of 16% in this last year! That's how much my taxes went up. You also hear governments scream that they need to keep up with inflation. I just wish that argument worked with my employer when I march in and say I want a 15% increase in wage to keep up with what the government is considering as inflation. I may or may not get a paltry 3% increase! Something has to be done to keep the spending down so we aren't chased right out of our homes. By the way - I am single, never married and don't have any kids so all this money going to schools has no immediate direct benefit to me and yet I subsidize how many illegal immigrant education as well as other people's children?

Hey "Cry me a river",

Although you may consider a $600,000 house elitist, a main point of the article is that property values are going up. That is, the same (non-elitist) house now has an elitist-looking price. The $700,000 house in San Diego is probably a dinky little thing in an average neighborhood. The thing to realize is that Utah is becoming more like California. Home prices for average homes are getting very high without the homeowners doing anything to become elitist. So you're telling average people to pay exorbitant taxes without getting anything more in return and without having any more resources to pay the tax.

You ask why anyone would pay more than $250,000 for a house. I bought my house five years ago for exactly that much. What if I had bought it today? It would cost $450k. But would anything have changed in my nature or character to make me an elitist for needing the same house now that I needed then?

On another note, I am concerned about Prop. 13's effect of making someone's property taxes skyrocket when they move. Let's say I buy a house in Salt Lake for $200,000. Then I need to relocate to Provo after owning my home ten years. I sell it for $400,000 and buy an equivalent one in Provo for $400,000. Under Prop. 13 my property taxes would double instantly while my house and my government services haven't improved at all.

I built my house 5 years ago for $200,000. I certainly wouldn't consider it elitist. This year the county appraised it at $660,000 and wants to charge me $4500 in taxes. That's almost $400 a month just for taxes, and it is more than double what I paid 2 years ago. I don't mind paying taxes to support the public services, but this is ridiculous. I have no intention of every selling my house, so why do I have to pay taxes based on what other people are willing to pay for it?

I know people who live near me in Huntsville, who have lived there for 30 or 40 years in a fairly modest house, and whose taxes went up 300% in one year! How are they supposed to budget for something like that? And the taxes are due 2-3 months from when the notice comes out. It seems to me there should be a cap on how much taxes can increase. One resident of Huntsville looked up the taxes for everyone in the town and figured out that the AVERAGE tax increase was 91%. That is insane.

Proposition 13 may be extreme, but there should be caps on increases per year, and appraisals should be more uniform.

Attn: Utah Tax Slaves - Do not attempt to pass a Proposition 13 in Utah! Thousands of illegal aliens are depending on you for their government supplied education, health care, jail costss and other expensive freebies!

On the other hand, I am thankful that Prop 13 passed in California - that's the only reason I can still afford to live in my house in San Diego. The government tax raisers would have auctioned it off years ago to pay the all the freebies the illegals want to have and the government bureaucrats want to give them at my expense.