CA group opposes property tax hike, billionaires' tax

(The Center Square) – Officials with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association are concerned about efforts to raise property taxes on California’s homeowners, a representative of the organization told The Center Square this week. The trepidation that the state’s homeowners might see property taxes go up stems from transfer-tax loopholes, the proposed billionaires’ tax and the state’s budget deficit, according to organization officials and a letter sent earlier this month by the group to its members. The letter explained that California used to have a small 0.11% transfer tax on the transfer of ownership when property changed hands, which was kept from increasing by Proposition 13. A series of court decisions in the years after Prop. 13 passed in 1978 then allowed “charter cities” to institute their own transfer taxes that were much higher than the 0.11% limit imposed by Prop. 13, according to the letter from the well-known taxpayers organization. “We have a situation in California where