Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues,americast.usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Mon, Nov 2 1992 Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 04:47:35 EST Message-ID: Lines: 115 11-02 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update Nov. 2, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Monday morning in USA TODAY: Taxes, Election. TODAY'S DEBATE - PROPERTY TAX: USA TODAY'S OPINION: Homeowners sinking under the weight of property taxes are reaching for a lifeline. In nine states, voters will decide Tuesday whether to limit or reduce property taxes. None of those ballot initiatives are as slash happy as California's Prop. 13, which fired the tax revolt in 1978. Some allow increases for inflation. Two - in Oklahoma and Arkansas - would only limit taxes on items such as household goods or livestock. But California's history and that of some other states suggests caution. California voters, angered at rising taxes and a huge state budget surplus, slapped a cap on property taxes with Prop. 13. Other tax limits followed. The surplus disappeared. Inflation raised costs. Now the state is strapped. For two months, the state paid workers and vendors with IOUs. Finally, education and welfare spending were slashed, as were health care for the poor and money for local programs. And many say it was only the beginning. Prop. 13 also invited gross inequity. People who bought their houses before 1975 may pay only a tenth the taxes of neighbors who moved in later. This year, an initiative would nudge California in the opposite direction - easing limits on business property taxes to attract new companies. Oregon voters face a similar measure. Voters would also be wrong to assume that property tax caps will automatically save them money. After Massachusetts capped property taxes in 1980, water and sewage fees doubled, concede backers of the tax cap. They project that by decade's end those fees, which also cover a court-ordered clean-up of Boston Harbor, will cost homeowners as much as property taxes. Tax caps aren't magic. Like anything else, something that sounds too good to be true usually is. OTHER VIEW: PATRICK COX, a Competitive Enterprise Institute economic analyst from Menlo Park, Calif.: No tax is without unintended and sometimes malignant repercussions, but the side effects of property taxes are among the most perverse. The magnitude of those unplanned consequences have grown dramatically as property tax rates have exploded over the past decades. The most obvious effect is the increase in housing costs. Ironically, this increase is actively countered by billions in federal spending intended to help the hard-pressed middle class afford homes. Further billions are spent helping low-income families pay rents that are raised to include property tax hikes. These conflicting policies are analogous to paying a demolition crew and builders to work on the same house. Similarly, property taxes work at cross purposes to government policies that encourage open spaces. While local governments tax citizens to promote greenbelts and other fallow land use in crowded areas, high property taxes force owners to develop unused land just so they can afford to pay the taxes. When levied on improvements, property taxes cause further problems by discouraging developments such as condos and apartments. This forces cities to grow outward, chewing up open spaces in outlying areas and spreading high property tax rates. Commuting times and the various unpleasantries associated with daily travel are also increased. As other states follow California's lead and move to limit property taxes, the usual government apologists are protesting that politicians could implement reforms more selectively. They could, but decades of geometrically growing waste and taxes testify that politicians will almost never initiate actions that threaten their own comfort and income. If voters don't limit property taxes, it won't get done. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON POPULAR ELECTIONS FOR PRESIDENT: LEBANON, Pa., Patrick Reilly, 39, computer operator: I'm voting for the Libertarian party, and if Andre Marrou were running as a popular candidate, he might get 10% of the vote. Now he'll get nothing. The average person can be intimidated by this. If their candidate can't get enough, they won't even go to vote. TUCSON, Ariz., Carol O'Bright, 38, salesperson: Our system has been set up with the Electoral College, and I don't see where it should change at this point. Sometimes the system doesn't work and a candidate gets elected without the popular vote. But I don't think there is a perfect system. JACKSONVILLE, Fla., John A. Keeler, 67, author, lecturer: The people who set up this country believed in a system of checks and balances. A few of the states with the majority of the population might have more advantage with the popular vote than with the Electoral College. DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Kathleen Gaber, 25, elementary teacher: People would probably just base their decisions on his looks and not what he stands for. By going through the Electoral College, I think it would be more of a safeguard. Also, the size of your state gives it more weight. Illinois has a lot of electoral votes. LOS ANGELES, Calif., Ralph Crawford, 49, inspector: The educational system has given more education to a wider mass of people. The Electoral College was to keep people from being hoodwinked into voting for someone who isn't good for them. Now there's more information and it travels faster. Issues & Debate Editor: Kate Coughlin. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM