Property tax implications of Prop 19 were discussed at our March 7 meeting when County Assessor Jeff Prang referred to the year-old ballot measure as “a dumpster fire.”
In the year since Prop 19 was enacted, the Assessor’s office has been hit with “an explosion of applications.” The need to clean up the vague language in the measure made it unenforceable and resulted in a huge backlog. Families that chose to use the “portability” element of Prop 19 have been hit with unaffordable property tax bills. The LA Times ran a story yesterday. Here are an excerpt and a link to the full article:
Nearly a year after the law took effect, the assessor’s office has not completed any of the 1,271 applications it has received to recalculate the property taxes for older and disabled homeowners under the law, according to the agency. And it hasn’t finished any of the nearly 3,700 applications for parent-to-child and grandparent-to-grandchild inheritances, the other major piece of the tax measure.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-03-09/proposition-19-california-property-tax-delay
Of the backlog of reassessments Prang says "I'm losing sleep over that, but at the moment I am much more concerned about what I think was the unfortunate lack of information for voters on the inheritance component.
Prang supports and has endorsed the initiative to Repeal the Death Tax, which has another month to gather the needed 1 million signatures to qualify for the Nov. 2022 ballot.
In Prang’s view there is an urgent need to restore the intergenerational property tax protections that were provided by Prop 58 and eliminated when Prop 19 was narrowly supported by the voters.
“I see it as a justice issue,” Prang says.
“They didn’t talk about the intergenerational aspect of Prop 19 during the campaign. We can argue whether those types of inheritance benefits are meritorious or not, but I think people have a right to make changes to public policy with open eyes and all the information they need to make an informed decision.
“I think people were misled and should have the right to reconsider.”
Neighbors are collecting signatures to qualify the Repeal the Death Tax initiative for the Nov. ballot.
If you want to sign a petition or pick one up to circulate among friends and neighbors feel free to be in touch. You can also access more information and request petitions at
A video of our conversation with Assessor Prang is at the link below. He also discusses with us the tax assessment implications of SB9 and ADUs:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wHHhaWVXlRpwdMWhNMG_WKTai0ycGzCy/view
Tricia Crane
Chair, Northeast Neighbors of Santa Monica