Californians who take low property taxes and high quality drinking water for granted might have reason to rethink both those realities if the state's water districts figure out a way to raise property taxes—the same might be true if they don't.
"Major water districts in California are quietly considering using property taxes -- and possibly raising them without a vote of the public -- to help fund Gov. Jerry Brown's $25 billion plan to build two massive tunnels through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta," reports Paul Rogers.
What about the two-thirds voter approval required to raise property taxes in the state? "[Some water districts] say they were given the authority to raise property taxes to pay for the State Water Project, a vast system of dams and canals, in both a 1959 law and a year later in a statewide ballot measure. And those predate Proposition 13."
The Santa Clara Valley Water District and the Metropolitan Water District (in Southern California) are two of the districts that are considering their tax authority, according to the Rogers article.
FULL STORY: Property taxes could pay for $25 billion Delta tunnels without public vote
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research