The new analysis, called Burdens and Benefits, concludes that the law disproportionately benefits white and wealthier homeowners, who tend to live in higher-income communities where property values have risen faster relative to other neighborhoods.
Phil Levin argues that Prop 13 has offered businesses and largely white, wealthy homeowners huge tax breaks at the expense of government revenue and school funding. Homeowners in wealthy, white neighborhoods in Oakland received thousands of dollars more in property tax breaks than their counterparts in neighborhoods with large Black, Asian and Latino populations, according to abased on a study by the Tax Fairness Project and the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association.
But “the people who are hurt by it just don’t even know about it,” said Levin, “Then, of course, all the people who benefit from it intensely care about it.” The owner of a 6,740-square-foot mansion in San Francisco estimated to be worth $9 million paid $5,625 in property taxes in 2020,which analyzed county tax records and market values in home buying websites such as Zillow. Across the bay in Richmond, the owner of a 991-square-foot home worth $331,000 and in need of repairs paid almost as much tax at $5,240.
“Not only are they going to be absolutely devastated by their mortgage payment, they are going to be paying four times what their neighbor pays if their neighbor has been around since 1999. It just doesn’t seem fair for the same services,” he said. More white residents in Oakland benefitted in general from Prop. 13 because more own their homes than other racial groups. White residents make up 28% of the city’s population but represent 43% of its homeowners, the report found.
Low property taxes from Prop. 13 also mean fewer tax dollars for Oakland. Critics say removing the proposition would be a gamechanger for the city.
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