Wealthy, white homeowners fare better than others when it comes to Prop. 13 tax breaks

HOMEOWNERS IN WEALTHY, white neighborhoods in Oakland received thousands of dollars more in property tax breaks than their counterparts in neighborhoods with large Black, Asian and Latino populations, according to a new report based on a study by the Tax Fairness Project and the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association.

The report takes aim at Proposition 13, a 1978 California law which limits how much governments can tax property to 1 percent of its assessed value. The law also constrains property values for tax purposes, so properties are taxed at the value at which they were sold — not a property’s up-to-date market price. In most cases, properties are only reassessed when they sell.