That's the whole point Kathy, and no I WASN'T joking!

The point here is that where government services benefit everyone, everyone should be asked to pay for them; NOT just property owners. In California public education is in essence financed through local property taxes. Therefore all of society doesn't pay for public education; only property owners do.

When school districts cry "chicken little" because they don't have enough money, they typically present "parcel tax" [a disingenuous name because as you can see the tax from parcels already finances public education] measures which again, are ONLY paid by property owners.

Thus the rest of society gets a free ride and doesn't pay its fair share of a service which supposedly benefits everyone. So is that what you meant when you said property owners should continue to pay because everyone benefits? Or maybe you didn't understand?

Now start looking at other special districts in California which provide services which benefit EVERYONE [like parks, cemeteries, hospitals, fire departments, water, sewage and open space districts, community colleges, etc., etc.]. In California EVERYONE of these "quasi governments" receives a pro-rata portion of the property taxes again paid only by property owners. And when these districts need more money, they play the same "chicken little" theme proposing [you guessed it] more parcel taxes [which are again paid ONLY by property owners].

So really who is paying what for the benefit of everyone? Or stated differently, exactly how does the non property owner pay his or her fair share? Is it the sales and vehicle taxes property owners pay as well? What about the income taxes property owners pay as well?

The point I was trying to make is that if the foregoing were not unfair enough, whenever there's an election to approve one of these special taxes against real property guess who gets to vote? You guessed it, the general electorate [those who are benefitted by these taxes yet who are not being asked to pay their fare share].

Now to get back to the original thread, 20 years ago the $12K/year of taxes were probably $2K. Is government now providing 6 times the amount of services it provided 20 years ago?

So in California you're better off becoming a tenant so you can pay your fair share of the government costs which "benefit everyone."