Would someone please tell Bay Area Council CEO Jim Wunderman property tax revenues have been rising without a constitutional convention to revise Proposition 13 (“Prop. 13 not off-limits to reformers,” July 3-9 issue).

According to the Board of Equalization, total property taxes collected in 2006-07 were $43.16 billion. The oldest property tax stats at www.caltax.org are for 1980-81. That year, property tax revenue was $6.36 billion. Property tax revenue increased by 579 percent since Prop 13 was implemented. During that time, the population went from 24 million to 38 million — an increase of 58 percent.

According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office’s budget database, in 1980-1981, total general and special fund revenue for California was $22.1 billion. For 2006-07, it was $120.7 billion. That is an increase of 555 percent. Property tax revenue went up faster than other sources of revenue.

Our own Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco recently published an article reporting that a dollar of government spending results in 70 cents of job-creating activity after two years. A dollar in tax cuts results in $1.30 to $3 of job-creating activity after two years. Does anyone out there get this? Government spending has a reverse “multiplier” effect on private sector (read taxpayers) jobs.

Click here for the rest of the article

Mike Denny was the Libertarian Party's 2003 candidate for Mayor of San Francisco.