A Higher Tax on All Your Houses

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, ballyhooed as a top economic advisor to Arnold Schwarzenegger, told the Wall Street Journal that property taxes in California are ridiculously low.

To make his point, Buffett compared the taxes he pays on his Omaha residence with those on his home in the ritzy California coast city of Laguna Beach. The tax on his $500,000 Omaha home rose $1,920 this year, compared with a mere $23 on his $4-million California residence.

For Republicans and many other Californians, Proposition 13 has become sacred text. His rivals to the center and left were even quicker to rebuff Buffett's common-sense talk: Gov. Gray Davis issued a firm endorsement of the crippling law, and independent recall candidate Arianna Huffington promised "to reverse the trend that has seen an increase in the property tax burden placed on homeowners."

Huh? What increased burden?

Proposition 13 must be changed because it mainly benefits the rich.

Last week's blackout in the Northeast and Canada showed us what happens when we cheat on public expenditures. From the brownouts endured by California at the hands of manipulative corporations like Enron to the Third World state of the nation's power grids, we are witnessing a meltdown of our underfunded and deregulated infrastructure.

The White House continues to throw billions into fixing Iraq's power and water infrastructure but ignores the U.S.' own massive problems. Perhaps the U.S. should consider invading itself.

http://www.robertscheer.com/