What the Original Property Tax Revolutionaries Wanted (It Is Not What You Think): Review of The Permanent Tax Revolt: How the Property Tax Transformed American Politics

Abstract

Shanske: What the Original Property Tax Revolutionaries Wanted: Review of The Permanent Tax Revolt THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Book Review The Permanent Tax Revolt: How the Property Tax Trans- formed American Politics, Isaac William Martin, Stanford University Press, 2008 What the Original Property Tax Revolutionaries Wanted (It Is Not What You Think) Darien Shanske University of California Hastings College of Law I. Introduction This important book convincingly demonstrates that the property tax revolt that culminated in California’s Pro- www.bepress.com/cjpp Volume 1, Issue 1, 2009 position 13 in 1978 originated to a large extent in a surpri- sing, and heretofore unanalyzed phenomenon: the moder- nization of the collection of the property tax. The import of Proposition 13 is hard to overstate; by all accounts it marked the start of a tax revolt that swept through all levels of American politics. The effects of this revolt are still with us today, and a huge amount of scholarship has been gene- rated seeking to explain the nature of this revolt. Isaac Martin’s book has the great merit of making an original contribution to a debate that many, myself inclu- ded, thought was exhausted. Martin offers a new explana- tion for Proposition 13, one that directly contradicts con- ventional wisdom, especially in the legal academy. In this review, I will summarize Martin’s argument and will ela- borate on its important implications for local government theory and finance. According to the now conventional wisdom as provi- ded by economist William Fischel, the advent of Proposi- tion 13 can only be understood as a response to the deci- sion of the California Supreme Court to require the equa- lization of school district finances. 1 Voters only decided to