California appellate court vindicates Proposition 13’s eminent domain protection
“Enacted by voters as a ballot initiative in 1978, California’s Proposition 13 gives property owners relief on their tax bills by limiting property taxes to one percent of a property’s value, with a maximum two percent increase for inflation per year. The property’s “base value”—used to calculate the one percent bill—may be reassessed when the property is sold. In 1982, voters approved a follow-up initiative, Proposition 3, to ensure that people don’t lose that protection—the frozen, base value of their property—if government takes their land by eminent domain. Absent Proposition 3, someone buying a new piece of property to replace what the government took would be subject to higher property taxes, because the sale would trigger a reassessment of the new property under its current, fair market value.
Given the rapid rate at which property values increase in California, it’s not difficult to imagine how this could cause severe hardship to someone forced to buy replacement property after losing a home to eminent domain, particularly someone living on a fixed income. Because the state constitution only allows government to take private property if it pays the owner just compensation, and because just compensation means putting the owner in the same position he would have been in had his land not been taken, he’s entitled to transfer the base value of the taken property to a replacement.”
Thompson, Jennifer Fry. Liberty Blog 25 july 2014.