Proposition 13

As I read the unending stream of opinions on the impending court challenge to Proposition 13, I am continually amazed how self-serving property owners can think up endless rationalizations and justifications for the huge inequities of the present system. I own my own home and am presently paying about half the property tax I would pay if it were appraised at market value. This in no way leads me to believe that Proposition 13 is fair in its discrimination against new home buyers.

As a Southern California Realtor, I am also amazed that a professor of economics at a local university (letter, Dec. 11) could so ignorantly theorize that current real estate prices are lower than they would be without Proposition 13. Perhaps they do not teach supply and demand at his university, but any thinking person must realize that many property owners who have owned their homes for many years are dissuaded from selling and buying a larger, smaller or differently located one, simply because of the huge increase in property taxes they would face. Hence the supply of homes for sale is greatly reduced and the resultant prices go through the roof.

Fairness and equality to all demand that Proposition 13 be repealed and everyone be put on an equal tax footing. And to the consternation of speculators, but to the great relief of young people who dream of owning their own homes, real estate prices just might stabilize in the Southland.

JOSEPH BURKE

Burbank