Who Saved Who Money...What is wrong with this picture?

Today, at the Mall where I was talking with “folks on the street”, one taxpayer started in about the incumbent’s claim that “she saved the taxpayers $16.5 million” over the last few years by applying Prop 8. “Total non-sense” is what he called it, and asked my opinion. I agree. After taxpayers had paid more money than was required of them under Prop 8 for a period of 2 to 3, or more years, the incumbent Assessor decided to reduce their assessment, as required by law on January 1 of each year due to the downturn in the housing market, and then reduced their property tax to where it should have been for the 2 to 3 years previously….and called this “saving the taxpayer money”. Any way you look at this, this is merely reducing what they will be paying in the future….and not refunding to the taxpayer what they have already over paid….no way is this “saving the taxpayer money”. This is government “gobbledegook” if I have ever heard it…and this has been stated publicly in my presence on numerous occasions, as well as on Public Radio. Since when is it saved after taxpayers have paid it, and then reducing the tax amount that they should have never paid? A significant refund to each taxpayer that had overpaid would be more like it, and that never happened.

I have stated in my public appearances as well as in my printed material and on the website that upon taking office I will institute a plan to bring all that are eligible for Proposition 8 enrollment into Prop 8. This will take a different kind of leadership than has been exhbited the past 3 years, and we will have outstanding results. Our goal will be to make property assessment and the property taxes consistent with market value, which is the goal of Prop 8.

To state “I have saved taxpayers money” that they have already paid to the County, is not my concept of a good savings program. The County is not my “bank for saving money”. I will see that taxpayers are paying only as much as the Prop 8 reassessment calls for, which in essence will be reducing their property taxes. And, as appropriate, some may be entitled to recover part of what they have already paid. I, for one, would not mind if my taxes were reduced three or four hundred dollars, or more, a year. How about you, the taxpayers? Not such a bad idea.
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