Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Thai Fighter Jet Bombs Cambodian Targets as Border Battle Escalates

23 hours ago

California Cannot Require Background Checks to Buy Ammunition, US Appeals Court Rules

1 day ago

Wrestling Legend Hulk Hogan Dies at 71, TMZ Reports

1 day ago

TikTok Will Go Dark in US Without Chinese Approval of Sale Deal, Lutnick Says

1 day ago

Meme Stock Surge Underlines Market Froth, Mostly Centered on Retail Investors

1 day ago

Fresno County Authorities Still Searching for Missing Mother and Infant

1 day ago

California Releases Teacher Data. It Shows Big Rise in Hispanic Teachers

1 day ago

Biting a Bat and 5 Other Wild Moments From Ozzy Osbourne’s Life

1 day ago

Henry Thompson Did Wonders for Fresno Airport, Leaves ‘Incredibly Big Shoes to Fill’

2 days ago
Walters: Locals Seek New Taxes Despite $4B Property Tax Surge
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 7 years ago on
October 17, 2018

Share

Local government officials throughout the state got some very good financial news when county tax assessors toted up changes in taxable property values for their 2018-19 budgets.


Opinion
by Dan Walters
CALmatters Columnist

That increase, three times the rate of inflation, translates into $4-plus billion more in revenue for cities, counties and other local governments.
The state’s uber-strong real estate market generated a 6.51 percent increase in those values, adding another $374 billion to the property tax rolls and pushing the total to $6.1 trillion.
That increase, three times the rate of inflation, translates into $4-plus billion more in revenue for cities, counties and other local governments. While schools also receive property taxes, they don’t directly benefit from the increase because of how state aid is structured.
The big winners are cities because, unlike counties and schools, they are almost totally dependent on local taxes and fees to finance their budgets.
San Francisco, which is both a city and a county, reported the state’s strongest assessed valuation gain, 10.35 percent.
The very strong growth in property tax revenue, however, raises a pithy question: Why then are so many local governments, cities especially, complaining that they can’t balance their budgets unless local voters raise taxes?

254 Local Tax Increases on the November Ballot

There are 254 local tax increases on the November ballot – sales taxes, parcel taxes, utility taxes and hotel/motel taxes, mostly – according to the California Taxpayers Association, 65 percent more than there were four years ago.
The reason is that even with strong property tax gains, local governments’ pension costs are growing faster than revenues, thus putting the squeeze on their budgets.
Cities have been hit the hardest by increases in mandatory payments to the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) as it tries to shrink its large “unfunded liability.”
City officials have repeatedly complained about the specter of insolvency if pension payments continue to grow and the League of California Cities has labeled the situation “unsustainable.”
With very rare exceptions, however, officials who place the tax increases on the ballot will not publicly say the extra revenue is needed to offset rising pension costs. Officials believe that telling the truth would make voters less likely to vote for the new taxes.
It could also make employee unions less likely to provide money for tax campaigns.
Rather, on the advice of high-priced consultants, they say the money is needed for popular police and fire services and parks.

Most Local News Media Are Carelessly Complicit

Unfortunately, most local news media are carelessly complicit in this conspiracy of silence, tending to accept the official reasons at face value, rather than analyze them critically.

Unfortunately, most local news media are carelessly complicit in this conspiracy of silence, tending to accept the official reasons at face value, rather than analyze them critically.
That’s true even though data about what revenue the new taxes would generate and projections of pension costs are readily available.
Over the weekend, for instance, the Sacramento Bee published a long article about proposed tax increases in Central Valley cities, quoting officials about what they hoped to do with the extra revenue, including Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who called his one-cent sales tax hike a “game changer.”
However, the article only tersely mentioned pensions as something brought up by unnamed “critics,” even though the city’s own budget complains about pension costs and data indicate that the new taxes would largely go to pensions.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel, in a similar piece about new hotel/motel tax proposals in its region, took the opposite – and more responsible – tack by delving into how pensions are straining local budgets and driving tax hikes.
The Sentinel’s article, unfortunately, is a very rare exception. Otherwise, local officials and local media seem to believe that ignorance will be blissful.
CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Israeli Columnist Alleges Ethnic Cleansing Plan in Gaza

DON'T MISS

US States to Get $608 Million From FEMA to Build Migrant Detention Centers

DON'T MISS

Trump: Strong Dollar Sounds Good but ‘You Make a Hell of a Lot More’ With a Weaker One

DON'T MISS

US Appeals Court Rejects Challenge to Washington Laws Concerning Transgender Minors

DON'T MISS

Tesla to Roll out Bay Area Robotaxis With Safety Drivers, Report Says

DON'T MISS

Trump Says He Has Not Considered Clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Arrest Felon in Connection With Drive-by Shooting

DON'T MISS

US Clears Way for $8 Billion Paramount-Skydance Merger

DON'T MISS

Thailand and Cambodia Exchange Heavy Artillery Fire as Border Battle Expands

DON'T MISS

Trump Says US May Not Have a Negotiated Trade Deal With Canada

UP NEXT

No One Controls MAGA, not Even Trump. The Epstein Files Prove It

UP NEXT

A Pro-Trump Community Reckons With Losing a Beloved Immigrant Neighbor

UP NEXT

Why American Jews No Longer Understand One Another

UP NEXT

Masked Raids and Impersonators Driving Force Behind Terror Campaign Across Nation

UP NEXT

I’m Not Leaving Measure C and COG Can’t Make Me: Brooke Ashjian

UP NEXT

I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.

UP NEXT

California Is Finally Adopting Phonics, Fulfilling a Grandmother’s Dream

UP NEXT

New CA Budget Papers Over $20 Billion Deficit, Ignores Day of Reckoning

UP NEXT

Trump Is Winning the Race to the Bottom

UP NEXT

Why California Ag Is at Odds Over Converting Land to Solar Farms

US Appeals Court Rejects Challenge to Washington Laws Concerning Transgender Minors

1 hour ago

Tesla to Roll out Bay Area Robotaxis With Safety Drivers, Report Says

1 hour ago

Trump Says He Has Not Considered Clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell

2 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest Felon in Connection With Drive-by Shooting

2 hours ago

US Clears Way for $8 Billion Paramount-Skydance Merger

2 hours ago

Thailand and Cambodia Exchange Heavy Artillery Fire as Border Battle Expands

2 hours ago

Trump Says US May Not Have a Negotiated Trade Deal With Canada

2 hours ago

Netanyahu, Trump Appear to Abandon Gaza Ceasefire Negotiations With Hamas

3 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Julian Jay Haymon

3 hours ago

Trump Says There Is a 50-50 Chance of Trade Deal With EU

3 hours ago

Israeli Columnist Alleges Ethnic Cleansing Plan in Gaza

In a sharply critical opinion piece, Israeli columnist Gideon Levy draws parallels between the Holocaust and Israel’s reported plans to forc...

23 minutes ago

Palestinians inspect the damage at an UNRWA school sheltering displaced people that was hit in an Israeli air strike on Sunday, in Gaza City, June 30, 2025. (Reuters/Mahmoud Issa)
23 minutes ago

Israeli Columnist Alleges Ethnic Cleansing Plan in Gaza

An aerial view shows "Alligator Alcatraz" ICE detention center at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida, U.S. July 24, 2025. (Reuters File)
34 minutes ago

US States to Get $608 Million From FEMA to Build Migrant Detention Centers

President Donald Trump speaks after disembarking Marine One, as he departs for Scotland, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., July 25, 2025. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)
1 hour ago

Trump: Strong Dollar Sounds Good but ‘You Make a Hell of a Lot More’ With a Weaker One

Family members and advocates gather inside the Lutheran Church of the Reformation near the U.S. Supreme Court after justices supported a Republican-backed ban in Tennessee on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, during a rally in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 18, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

US Appeals Court Rejects Challenge to Washington Laws Concerning Transgender Minors

A Tesla robotaxi drives on the street along South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, U.S., June 22, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

Tesla to Roll out Bay Area Robotaxis With Safety Drivers, Report Says

Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell stands at the podium to address Judge Alison Nathan during her sentencing in a courtroom sketch in New York City, U.S. June 28, 2022. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

Trump Says He Has Not Considered Clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell

2 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest Felon in Connection With Drive-by Shooting

Paramount Global logo is seen in this illustration taken December 17, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
2 hours ago

US Clears Way for $8 Billion Paramount-Skydance Merger

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend