On the 15th of most months for the past five years, a vigil has been held on the Arcata Plaza or at Arcata City Hall. We bring flowers, wear red, light candles, hold signs, and shout “Justice for Josiah!” We stand in silence with our heads bowed in disbelief at our failed justice system. We listen to prayers prayed and a mother’s heart breaking, voice cracking, tears falling, rage and grief lining everything.
Five years is a long time for a loving mother to wait in her grief. Five years of sleepless nights, restless dreams, imploring people to not forget her son, meeting with attorneys, sending letters and emails and voicemails and meeting with our elected officials and law enforcement, organizing coat drives, food drives, backpack drives for Humboldt’s needy, driving 13 hours from L.A. to Humboldt most months, praying with those who suffer and listening to those in pain.
Five years of showing up to a town where her son thrived as a student at Humboldt State and a town where her son’s life was violently stolen from him.
Five years without justice.
After many young people in his care were killed from gang violence, Father Gregory Boyle once wrote, “You don’t keep vigil—it keeps you.”
Those of you who have lost your “beloved person,” where death came too quickly, abruptly, unexpectedly—a life stolen—you don’t hold monthly vigils to remember. You carry the vigil with you into every moment of your life. You hold vigil in your body, the hollow pain of loss embeds deep within you where this cavernous void becomes a constant reminder of who is no longer there. Every experience, every life-changing moment, every trip or vacation or holiday or meal around the table is a vigil—a perpetual sign of the life stolen and the emptiness you feel without their presence with you.
You don’t keep vigil—it keeps you.
I never knew David Josiah Lawson personally, but I know his mother, Charmaine, and I’ve felt a sliver of the pain she carries coursing through her and into me. I’ve held her hand in prayer, vice gripped with generations of Black grieving mothers surrounding her, wailing and raging over their childrens’ lives stolen. My hands and body, a tripod to keep her up.
When a Black man calls out from dying breath or from fear of being pulled over or from bleeding at a house party, “Mama!”, are not all mamas called on? Do we not all hear their cry echoing throughout the ages if we listen close enough? I think of Jesus Christ on the cross crying out for his Mama and making sure she would be held through the void that would come from his death—that she would be cared for in the pit of her grief and in her rage and anger at injustice.
While I believe there’s victory over death through Christ’s death, everyday still hurts. When the weighty death of your beloved’s unjust killing stands on your chest, where you can no longer get full breaths in, the pain can overshadow any victory. Because no matter the victory of Christ, and no matter how many times Christians say “Oh death, where is your sting?”, death fucking stings. The paradox we live in as a People of Hope includes the lingering sting of death until death comes for each of us and the joy of what’s-to-come is revealed.
You don’t keep vigil. Vigil keeps you and is the constant reminder of how much death still stings.
So what do you do in the meantime? How do you continue forth within this sting?
“God protects me from nothing but sustains me through everything,” Father Boyle wrote in Tattoos on the Heart. In the midst of working to undo a sometimes unjust and oppressive system bent on control and greed, we find that we might not be protected but we are sustained. You can walk through the valley of the shadow of death, even when the sting of death feels impossible, because you are not walking it alone. Christ walked that valley before you and walks it with you even now.
Humboldt friends, will you join us this Friday at the Humboldt County Courthouse at 4 p.m.? Will you gather with us as we lift our voices with Charmaine’s and keep vigil? Justice delayed does not have to mean justice denied and your voice is needed as we seek justice together.
May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression,
and exploitation of people
so that you may work for
justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears,
to shed for those who suffer pain,
rejection, hunger, and war
so that you may reach out your hand
to comfort them and
turn their pain into joy.
May God bless you with foolishness
to believe that you can
make a difference in the world,
so that you can do
what others claim cannot be done,
to bring justice and kindness
to all our children and the poor.
-A Franciscan Blessing
# # #
Bethany Cseh is a pastor at Arcata United Methodist Church and Catalyst Church. She blogs frequently on her website, With Bethany.
Thomas Kemper plays “Man of Constant Sorrow” as his dog, Oswald, sings along | Video and photos: Stephanie McGeary
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If you’ve spent much time in Old Town, you’ve surely encountered a few buskers – folks singing or playing music for passers-by, in the hopes of receiving some monetary donations. But how often have you encountered a busking dog? Well, if you’ve been in Old Town recently, probably at least once.
His name is Oswald Cobblepot, the Associate (yes, like the Penguin from Batman, but with “the Associate” at the end) – a seven-year-old German shepherd and American bulldog mix, who can often be heard loudly howling along with the booming voice and guitar strumming of his partner, Thomas Kemper, near the Old Town Gazebo.
The duo, usually bearing a sign that reads “veteran and his dog sing for tips” have drawn the interest of many listeners, some who have wonder how this adorable canine learned how to sing. Kemper said that one day his furry friend just started singing along with him, completely out of the blue.
“Somebody asked me one day ‘how long did it take you to teach your dog to sing with you?’” Kemper told the Outpost, sitting outside Old Town Coffee and Chocolates Wednesday morning. “And I said ‘I didn’t.” He did it spontaneously…Then I thought, why don’t I make it a part of my act?”
Since Kemper first brought home his pal as a 14-week-old puppy, Cobblepot didn’t so much as make a peep for most of his life. He never barked at other dogs. He never howled along with the sound of ambulance sirens. “I actually thought he was a barkless dog,” Kemper told the Outpost.
Then about two years ago, Kemper said, he sprayed on some new cologne and, seemingly offended by the smell, Cobblepot barked at his owner for the first time. Shortly after that he started vocally expressing himself regularly, howling along with many of Kemper’s songs.
At first, Kemper said, he thought his dog was howling out of pain or dislike of the music. But after some time, it became clear that his pup was enjoying himself. Cobblepot seems to join in when Kemper hits a certain tone with his singing – the right combo of volume and pitch just seems to set him off. “Then once he gets rolling he just does what he feels, joining in at different parts,” Kemper said.
Unlike his canine partner, 54-year-old Kemper has been singing pretty much his whole life. He grew up in a very musical family – his dad was a jazz saxophonist and his mom was a classical pianist. Kemper said that his parents, who were very into the Human Potential Movement of the 1960s, would set up a radio in his room when he was little and keep it on all the time, changing the station daily, to expose him to different musical styles. Apparently it worked, because he has always loved music and started singing when he was very young. He got his first guitar when he was 14 and taught himself to play to accompany himself. He’s been busking ever since.
Kemper said that he used to have a much wider vocal range – nearly four octaves. But a little more than seven years ago, Kemper was in a pretty serious motorcycle accident that left him with several injuries, including to his vocal cords. He was able to find his singing chops again, but he now stays in the bass range. What Kemper lacks in vocal range, he more than makes up for in volume and soul, belting out sounds that seem to resonate across all of Old Town. Kemper draws a lot of his inspiration from other singers who don’t necessarily have a lot of range, but do have a unique style, even some grit, to their voice – like Billie Holiday, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan.
“I would rather hear somebody who doesn’t necessarily have the technical virtuosity and capacity, but who has the soul,” Kemper said. “I’d much prefer somebody who just plays their heart out.”
Working as a busker, Kemper has spent most of his life traveling and has lived all around California, Arizona, Texas and Oregon. After most recently living in Eugene for a stint, Kemper and Cobblepot came down to Humboldt last November and are currently living at Nation’s Finest, a transitional housing facility for veterans in Eureka. Kemper is a veteran, having served in the Navy in the 1980s.
Throughout his travels Kemper has had many different living situations — living out of an RV, camping — and has often been without conventional housing. But he’s never considered himself homeless, and identifies as “an urban backpacker” he said. He is currently seeking permanent housing, with support from Nation’s Finest. Kemper said he’s seeking a little more stability for himself and especially for his old pal, Cobblepot, who is getting older.
In case it isn’t apparent by this point in the story, Kemper really loves Cobblepot, who has been faithfully by his side for seven years. All of Kemper’s family has passed on, he said, and Cobblepot really is his only family, as well as his best friend and musical partner. He also is a real crowd-pleaser and when Cobblepot isn’t singing, he is usually eagerly approaching people, his butt wiggling excitedly, asking for love and pets.
“Oswald is such a social butterfly,” Kemper told the Outpost. “He really loves people. He’s taught me to be way more tolerant of people. He’s got unconditional love. So he’s teaching me more of that.”
Humboldt’s next D.A. should be Kamada.
If you like integrity, you gotta
vote in Adrian,
then we will all win –
safety, equity, the whole enchilada!
— Jennifer Savage
###
Smart and hard-working for years, Ms. Stacey stands out ‘mongst her peers.
Her temperament’s tops
For where the buck stops
Vote Eads for D.A.! And three cheers!
— Marian Barnes Hancock
###
There once was a gal from McKin
The D.A.’s race she was in
You know she is best
Smarter ‘n the rest
That’s why Ms. Eads should win!
— Wes Keat
Auditor-Controller
I’m supporting Cheryl Dillingham
Who has done the job and will again!
No more deadlines faux pas
Blaming any but Paz
Maybe Humboldt will pay bills again!
— Gary Noar
###
For auditor I’m voting for Cheryl
She’s got Dominguez over a barrel
At her job Karen sucks
Costing Humboldt big bucks
Cheryl Dillingham will end our imperil
— Darin Price
###
Humboldt’s run long on the rubber stamp
And Karen’s raised the bar like a champ
The best manager she’s not
But she’s the most honest we got
And for that I’m in her camp
— Allison Edrington
Fourth District Supervisor
Natalie Arroyo — Super! (Visor)
Natalie’s vision for the North Coast — The Humboldt we all love the utmost! Improve business and housing environment and learning… Vote Arroyo for Supervisor 4 post!
— Gail Popham
###
There was once this guy, Newman
Who you’d think was a total shoe-in
From potholes and hobos
To needles and Oh no’s!
Eureka what are we doin?!
— Di Fiederer and Anthony Mantova
###
There is a kind man that’s named Newman
He is an exceptional human
So we asked Mike to run
Though campaigning’s no fun
Okay, Voters, make him a shoo-in!
He always shows love for his City Having served on many committees For the 4th he will be Supervisor for thee With him we’ll have serendipity
To save the County from misery He’ll watch closely those funds Measure Z Vote Mike on June 7 No other choice better Elect this gent of integrity
— Lora Canzoneri
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They say a supe’s work can be gruesome
The job doesn’t pay a great huge sum
It’s hard to select
Which one to elect
Be it Mike or the other 4th twosome
— Ross Rowley
Arcata City Council
A candidate of high exultation Deserving another Councilation She’s concerned for her town And won’t let us down Vote Stillman and put her on station
— Bob Felter
Superior Court Judge
Consider McLaughlin for Judge
His position on ethics won’t budge
He’ll rule straight and fair
But you criminals beware
Coz Judge Ben won’t be buying your fudge!
— Barry Klein
Clerk/Recorder/Registrar of Voters
Only Major League Baseball’s Gigantes
With their biggest outfielder guantes
Might capture more catches
Or votes in great batches
Than our very own J.P. Cervantes
And you know what? We made a big showy stand for metrical regularity in the previous post, saying that we’d gleefully toss out any phony limerick that flubs its marks, but at least in this first round we’re going to go ahead and grant clemency.
Because why? Because it turns out that like 90 percent of you couldn’t write an actual limerick to save your own lives. It is truly shocking and astonishing and shameful.
Of the current crop, only Marian Barnes Hancock, Ross Rowley, and Engel and Slackerelli manage to actually pull off this most simple form of verse.
The fact that Rowley manages to succeed where so many fail gives me a theory. One thing everyone knows about Ross: He is a musician. So he knows, and I bet Barnes Hancock and Engel and/or Slackerelli also know, that a limerick, first and foremost, is eight bars of 6/8 time. Y’all are counting syllables as if we were composing a curséd haiku, here, when you should be swinging.
The basic metrical elements of the first, second and fifth lines of a limerick go like this:
DAH-duh-duh DAH-duh-duh DAH-duh
At the end of this line you get four beats of silence, which are important.
See? Twelve beats, organized in four groups of three. That’s the foundation.
Now, you also get one or two optional pickup notes, which, musically, displace one or two of the rests in the previous measure. So those first, second and fifth lines could be:
duh | DAH-duh-duh DAH-duh-duh DAH-duh
or:
duh-duh | DAH-duh-duh DAH-duh-duh DAH-duh
If you can sing your first, second and fifth lines to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,” you’re doing great.
The third and fourth lines are half-lines twinned with one another, and their rat-a-tat-tat quality is the whole key to the form’s essentially comedic nature. They go:
… and again, you can use the pickup notes if you wish.
Let’s use what we now know to analyze the greatest limerick of all time, Robert Conquest’s reworking of The Seven Ages of Man:
First there comes puking and mewling; Then very pissed off at your schooling; Then fucks; and then fights; Judging other chaps’ rights; Then sitting in slippers; then drooling.
How would we recite this?
FIRST there comes PUKE-ing and MEW-ling (rest REST rest) then VER-y pissed OFF at your SCHOOL-ing (rest REST rest) then FUCKS and then FIGHTS, judg-ing OTH-er chaps’ RIGHTS (rest) then SIT-ting in SLIP-pers then DROOL-ing (rest REST rest rest)
There you go! That’s a limerick!
Now everyone go forth and write great limericks — or, OK, even terrible ones — in support of your favorite candidate for office. And when you do, send them to news@lostcoastoutpost.com, and put the words “Election Limerick” in the subject line! Let’s keep it rolling!
Press release from the Humboldt County Drug Task Force:
Since
early February 2022 the Humboldt County Drug Task Force (HCDTF) had
been investigating Christopher
Battles, AKA: Christopher Newcomb
(32 years old from Eureka), and his girlfriend, Karli
Anagnost (30 years old from
Eureka) for transportation and sales of fentanyl. As a result of
their investigation agents received a search warrant for Battles,
Anagnost, and their vehicle.
On
Wednesday April 13th,
2022 HCDTF agents conducted surveillance on Battles and Anagnost as
they travelled from Humboldt County to the Tenderloin District in San
Francisco to purchase more fentanyl. On Thursday morning April 14th,
2022 HCDTF agents made a traffic stop on Battles and Anagnost as the
entered Humboldt County on Highway 101. Both subjects were detained
without incident.
HCDTF
Agents conducted a search of the vehicle and located approx. 3 ounces
of fentanyl, smaller quantities of methamphetamine and heroin, as
well as a digital scale and packaging materials. Both suspects
admitted to transporting fentanyl into Humboldt County for the
purpose of sales. Both suspects were transported to the jail and
booked for the following charges:
H&S 11351 Possession of fentanyl
for sale
H&S 11352(b) Transportation of
fentanyl across non-contiguous counties
H&S 11377 Possession of
methamphetamine
PC 182 Conspiracy
Anyone
with information related to this investigation or other narcotics
related crimes are encouraged to call the Humboldt County Drug Task
Force at 707-267-9976.
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is pleased to share with the community our 2021 Annual Report.
In this report you will find information about every division of the Sheriff’s Office. While this profession certainly comes with many daily challenges, the men and women of this office continue to take these obstacles and turn them into opportunities to show compassion and make a difference. In addition to the daily difficulties that come with this job, our organization has faced many other challenges this year, including short staffing, pandemic restrictions and fatigue, wildfires, and rising crime. Despite these adversities, our dedicated staff have continued to step up, allowing our office to maintain 24-hour communications, patrol coverage and jail services, all while consistently providing a high level of service in all of our many other functions. Through it all, the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office continue to exemplify our mission, to protect and serve our community and to earn the public’s trust compassion and accountability.
This publication is only a snapshot of what the Sheriff’s Office accomplishes daily throughout the county. There are things that deputies do every day to make a difference that go unnoticed, and we pride ourselves on that. The Sheriff’s Office is blessed to have the community’s trust and support.
As we welcome 2022 in anticipation of whatever this year may bring, we have confidence that one thing will remain the same: our commitment to you, our community. We look forward to continuing our pursuit to build trust and relationship with our community, to solve problems together and make Humboldt County a safe place to live, work and play. If you are interested in learning more about the Sheriff’s Office or volunteering to help with our mission, vision, and values, please visit our website at humboldtsheriff org, like us on Facebook @HumboldtSheriff, or follow us on lnstagram @HumboldtSheriff or Twitter @HumCoSO.
Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury — a key component of the Potter Valley Project. Photo: PG&E.
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PG&E’s license to operate the Potter Valley Project expires today. The license expiration marks the first step in the decommissioning process of the project, and the likely removal of the Scott and Cape Horn dams.
PG&E has been looking to rid itself of the Potter Valley Project — a hydroelectric system that diverts thousands of acre-feet of water each year from the Eel River into the headwaters of the Russian River — and the costs associated with it for years. PG&E submitted a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in January 2019 to provide notice that it would not submit an application to relicense the project once the license lapses on April 14, 2022.
Members of the Two-Basin Partnership – California Trout, the County of Humboldt, the Mendocino County Inland Water & Power Commission, the Round Valley Indian Tribes and Sonoma County Water Agency – filed a proposal to take over the license in May 2020 with the intent to remove Scott Dam and restore fish passage to more than 280 miles of prime spawning and nursery habitat for endangered summer steelhead.
It should be noted that the Potter Valley powerhouse has been offline since July 2021, when PG&E staff discovered a broken transformer during a routine inspection of the facility. Despite PG&E’s efforts to ditch the project, the company announced earlier this year that it would make the necessary repairs to bring the powerhouse back online.
“PG&E has completed its evaluation of whether to replace the transformer and concluded it is beneficial to PG&E’s electric generation customers to proceed with the work necessary to return the powerhouse to full operational status,” PG&E stated in a Feb. 1 letter to stakeholders. “… PG&E does not have a schedule for returning the powerhouse to service. Our experience with this kind of work indicates the repairs could be completed in the next couple of years, but we will not know until the detailed engineering is completed later this year.”
PG&E spokesperson Deanna Contreras noted that the license surrender process “is likely to take more than five years” so replacing the transformer “makes economic sense for our electric generation customers.”
“Based on our analysis, the ‘payback’ period for investment in the new transformer is about five years,” she wrote in an email to the Outpost. “In this case, payback simply means the point at which the benefit of operating the powerhouse outweighs the cost of purchasing replacement power for our customers. …The transformer will need to be engineered, custom-built, transported and installed, which could take a couple of years.”
Although the Two-Basin Partnership’s initial bid to take over the license wasn’t successful, Redgie Collins, legal and policy director for CalTrout, remains optimistic that dam removal will eventually move forward.
“The future of Potter Valley is a return of native spawning grounds and salmon and steelhead running through pristine habitat and a return of abundance to the Eel River,” he wrote in an email to the Outpost. “…PG&E can’t afford to operate the project, let alone pay the $3 to 5 million per year just to keep the project in place. That’s not even including the litigation costs should they attempt to delay surrender.”
But the timeline is still unclear. Alicia Hamann, executive director of Friends of the Eel River, said decommissioning could begin in the next few years if PG&E is motivated to act swiftly.
“Following [today’s license expiration], we expect to see FERC order PG&E to begin a license surrender proceeding,” Hamann told the Outpost. “Within 90 days of that order, we should see PG&E issue a schedule for the license surrender process and that will give us some more information about the timeline of events.”
The license surrender process usually takes about two years, but Hamann anticipates that it could take more time as we are entering “an era of lots and lots of dam removals.”
“We actually haven’t seen a lot of dam removals and so there’s not a ton of precedent for exactly how this process is going to go,” she said.
Collins added that CalTrout is prepared to negotiate a settlement agreement with Northern California tribes and PG&E to initiate the decommissioning process.
“We’ve got all the data and engineering studies to get a deal done quickly,” he said. “…PG&E will enter the decommissioning process with $2 million worth of studies that show in extreme detail how to remove both dams.”
FERC will soon issue an annual license to PG&E which will continue to operate the Potter Valley Project under the existing license conditions until FERC issues a final license surrender and decommissioning order.
Homeowners in wealthy, white neighborhoods in Oakland received thousands of dollars more in property tax breaks than their counterparts in neighborhoods with large Black, Asian and Latino populations, according to a new report based on a study by the Tax Fairness Project and the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association.
The report takes aim at Proposition 13, a 1978 California law which limits how much governments can tax property to 1% of its assessed value. The law also constrains property values for tax purposes, so properties are taxed at the value at which they were sold – not a property’s up-to-date market price. In most cases, properties are only reassessed when they sell.
The law has been criticized by policy experts for effectively offering long-time homeowners hefty tax discounts relative to new buyers.
The new analysis, called Burdens and Benefits, concludes that the law disproportionately benefits white and wealthier homeowners, who tend to live in higher-income communities where property values have risen faster relative to other neighborhoods.
Phil Levin, who founded the Tax Fairness Project to measure the effects of Prop. 13 in the Bay Area, argues that the law has offered businesses and largely white, wealthy homeowners huge tax breaks at the expense of government revenue and school funding.
But “the people who are hurt by it just don’t even know about it,” said Levin, “Then, of course, all the people who benefit from it intensely care about it.”
Prop. 13 does allow a property’s selling value to increase by 2% annually to account for inflation, but median home prices throughout California have soared far beyond that adjustment.
In the last year alone, Bay Area median home prices have risen nearly 14% to $1 million, according to CoreLogic sales data.
The law has been criticized by policy experts for effectively offering long-time homeowners hefty tax discounts relative to new buyers.
The law creates situations where mansions are paying similar taxes as fixer-uppers, “because homes in higher-income communities have increased in value at a faster pace than other homes, making the effects of Prop. 13 much larger for those homeowners,” Levin wrote in the report.
While the study focused on Oakland, Levin said the findings shed light on how Proposition 13 impacts communities across the state.
The owner of a 6,740-square-foot mansion in San Francisco estimated to be worth $9 million paid $5,625 in property taxes in 2020, according to the Tax Fairness Project, which analyzed county tax records and market values in home buying websites such as Zillow. Across the bay in Richmond, the owner of a 991-square-foot home worth $331,000 and in need of repairs paid almost as much tax at $5,240.
Luke Quirk, 42, purchased a four-bedroom home in Concord with his wife and two children for about $697,000 in 2015. While he pays more than $9,000 annually in property taxes, he said, his long-time homeowner neighbor told him he pays about $3,700 in taxes, though their houses are similar sizes.
Still, Quirk, who works in pharmaceuticals, is saving, too. Since 2015, his house has risen in value to about $1.1 million.
But Quirk said he thinks the next couple with children who want to buy a family home in the blue-collar suburb of Concord won’t have it as good.
“Not only are they going to be absolutely devastated by their mortgage payment, they are going to be paying four times what their neighbor pays if their neighbor has been around since 1999. It just doesn’t seem fair for the same services,” he said.
People often assume that Prop. 13 yields large benefits for all homeowners, but “that’s just not the case,” said Jacob Denney, co-author of the report and economic policy director at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association.
“Where you live within your city matters,” he said. And race and ethnicity matter, too.
For example, Oakland homeowners in white neighborhoods pay taxes on homes that, on average, are assessed at $693,924 below their market value, the study says, resulting in $9,631 per home in property tax breaks.
Homeowners in Latino neighborhoods also pay taxes on homes that are under-assessed, but by an average of $216,430, resulting in about $3,000 in tax breaks per home — a third of the savings in white neighborhoods, according to the analysis.
While the study identifies neighborhoods as white, Black, Latino or Asian, in most cases those races or ethnicities did not make up the majority of the population but represented large proportions of those parts of the city.
More white residents in Oakland benefitted in general from Prop. 13 because more own their homes than other racial groups. White residents make up 28% of the city’s population but represent 43% of its homeowners, the report found.
“The wealthiest neighborhoods receive the most (breaks), which helps them build more wealth for communities that were already benefiting from lots of wealth.” — Jacob Denney, co-author of the report and economic policy director at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association
Latino, Black and Asian residents are more likely to rent, a likely legacy of redlining, Denney said, referring to a banking practice which kept residents of poor and largely minority neighborhoods from obtaining bank loans to purchase or refinance their homes.
“The wealthiest neighborhoods receive the most (tax breaks), which helps them build more wealth for their communities that were already benefiting from lots of wealth,” Denney said.
Added Levin in the report, “Even when people of color do own their homes, their tax savings from Prop. 13 are smaller than those of majority white communities.”
Low property taxes from Prop. 13 also mean fewer tax dollars for Oakland. Critics say removing the proposition would be a gamechanger for the city.
The report found that if Oakland homes were taxed at their current market value, the city would gain an estimated $400 million in annual revenue. That’s more than the city’s current budgets for its transportation, fire, housing and community development, and human services departments combined.
But such solutions are complicated.
Low-income households may be getting a far smaller subsidy, but it’s a subsidy nonetheless.
Doing away with Prop. 13 altogether would have far-reaching implications, including the potential to make property taxes unaffordable for low-income families and retired seniors who rely on a fixed income and low-property taxes to keep their homes, said Susan Shelley, a spokesperson for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, an organization working to protect Prop. 13.
“You can look at the data any way you want,” she said, raising property taxes would “knock the middle class of California out of homeownership.”
Levin said he hopes for “a system that makes California look like the other 49 states … Every other state does it another way and they do fine.”
Other states have higher caps on property taxes and assessed values, and many have higher rates for commercial properties. Massachusetts, for example, allows cities to tax commercial property at nearly double the rate of residential property, while New York allows for an annual reassessment increase of 6% instead of California’s 2%.
But in California, Prop. 13 remains popular.
A 2018 poll from the Public Policy Center of California found 57% of adults thought the measure was “mostly a good thing,” while 23% believed it was “mostly a bad thing.”
In 2020 a ballot initiative that would have changed part of it by requiring that commercial properties be taxed at their market value lost 52-48%, a difference of more than 600,000 votes.
Denney said, “The conversation we have to have with the people of California is: Is the personal money saved worth it?”
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This article is part of the California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequality and economic survival in California. CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
