Prop. 13 Halted Onerous Tax Increases

The editorial ``The Orange Goes Sour,'' Dec. 13, which makes reference to the passage of Proposition 13, needs some clarification.

As a longtime property owner and taxpayer in California, I had seen property taxes rise at an alarming rate between 1940 and 1980. We built a small house in the 1970s. I saw my taxes rise six times in one year, and the tax assessor told me that I would eventually have to pay the equivalent of the cost of my house in taxes each year.

I wondered if I would have to eventually sell my home that I had planned to live in the rest of my life.

Then came Proposition 13. It was passed by an overwhelming majority of voters, to put a stop to the tax-and-spend policies of the government. The recent rejection of the tax-and-spend crowd shows the public is fed up with big government trying to put citizens who have worked and those who have depended on government handouts on a level playing fileld. Don Soule, Carmel Valley, Calif.

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