re: #42 researchok

Look at all the states with underfunded public pensions, for example. Even California under Jerry Brown is having to deal with that reality.

California’s budget problem is Prop 13. For years I rented half a house in Montecito, a gorgeous property on an acre in the seventh wealthiest zip code in the United States. The only reason I could afford the rent was because the landlady inherited the property from her parents who built it, so she was paying taxes on an assessed value of $150K, for a property that was worth $2-2.5 million easy. California’s budget is starving because the one thing that’s actually worth a lot here, real estate, is protected like crazy.