Gubernatorial candidate sends handwritten Valentine to Prop 13:‘I love you, but honey, you've got to change'

SACRAMENTO – Gubernatorial candidate Laura Wells has sent a handwritten valentine to Prop 13. Approved by voters in 1978, this proposition flattened property tax and required a two-thirds vote of the electorate or legislature to increase taxes.

"Prop 13, I love you, but honey, you've got to change," wrote Ms. Wells.

"There are some very good parts to Proposition 13. It has enabled people, especially seniors on fixed incomes, to stay in their homes, rather than lose them due to rising property taxes. That's what people voted for in 1978, and it's a very good thing that needs to be kept."

But, she calls the two-thirds super majority required to raise revenue "a safeguard for the super-rich, not the mildly rich or merely affluent, but the richest individuals and corporations in the land."

Ms. Wells points out that in boom years, the simple majority lowered taxes, benefiting primarily the super-rich, but now, she claims, "We're stuck."

Ms. Wells wrote on the flip side of her valentine: "You didn't mean to (Prop 13), but you've hurt the children."

In a recent campaign blog, Wells lists university tuition hikes as one of the 13 ways that Prop 13 was unlucky for California.

"Tuition hikes reached 34 percent this school year. As bad luck would have it, that is the same percentage of legislators that can block any increase in revenue."

Ms. Wells, 62, is a former financial and business analyst.