Let me state right up front that for me this is personal. As a teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District, I am now going into my fourth year of having to take unpaid furlough days, as a means of helping the school district and the state cope with massive budget deficits. This year we are being asked to take ten additional furlough days. I can't tell you how many thousands of dollars I've already lost over the years and will continue to lose in the years to come.
The rub is that, in California, much of the funding for K-12 education comes from property taxes. So, when I saw this article in the LA Times, entitled Romneys, Caught in Housing Bust, Got Tax Cut in La Jolla, needless to say, it caught my attention:
http://www.latimes.com/...
Mitt and Ann Romney were easily able to afford a $12-million La Jolla home.
But that didn't insulate them from the winds buffeting the real estate market in the months following their purchase in 2008.
After paying cash for the Mediterranean-style house with 61 feet of beach frontage, they asked San Diego County for dramatic property tax relief.
Apparently, even though they are worth somewhere around $250 million, the Romneys exerted a great deal of time and energy trying to get a better deal for themselves so they could reduce their property tax.
Initially, the Romneys asked that their 2009 assessment, $12.24 million, be reduced to $6.8 million, maintaining that their home had lost about 45% of its value in the first seven months they owned it.
Thirteen months later, after hiring an attorney to guide them, the Romneys filed an amended appeal, contending the home had suffered a less-dramatic fall of 27.3%, to $8.9 million.
They also filed an appeal for the 2010 tax year, claiming the house had dropped further, to $7.5 million, 38.7% less than the home's assessed value.
As a result, the Romneys have saved about $109,000 in property taxes over four years.
The article goes on to say:
The Romney campaign referred all questions about their La Jolla property taxes to Matthew A. Peterson, a lobbyist and attorney who helped the Romneys find the home. He has also guided them through the complex permit process for demolishing the home and rebuilding on the site.
Referring to their initial claim, Peterson said he did not know how the Romneys determined that their house value had fallen so dramatically, but he thought they may have been reacting to dismal news reports. In any case, he said, they were not required to file documentation at the beginning.
The assessor has two years to act, and while an application is pending, Peterson said, "You hire a lawyer, a team of appraisers, and you come up with a realistic value, then file a realistic appeal."
But "once I got involved," Peterson said, "the tax assessor's office was pretty darned aggressive determining the value."
But even though nothing they did was illegal, it still raises questions of morality in my book. While my fellow teachers and I have taken massive pay cuts over the years, and a number of my co-workers have actually been laid off after years of service, the Romneys, who have more money than God, rather than thinking to themselves, as decent people would, "Gosh, this state is in pretty bad shape, school districts are hurting, classrooms are overcrowded and teachers are losing jobs and money, maybe we could help out a little," instead turn their backs on everyone who is suffering and sacrificing and try to find a way to further enrich themselves at everyone else's expense.
It says a great deal about the character of the two people who are looking to move into yet another residence, this one at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
So big deal, what's a few more students per classroom, a scosh fewer textbooks, reduced faculty and services, a little less money in my pocket? At least the Romneys - and people like them - get to keep more of their millions, and that must be a good thing.
It's nice to know my pay cuts are not going to waste!
10:03 AM PT: Thanks to all of those who put the diary on the recommended list.
I would like to say that I understand those who think the Romneys just did what everyone does. And, frankly, I'd probably agree with those people if the state were flush with funds and teachers weren't being laid off or enduring massive cuts in pay. But at a time of such great suffering, when everyone is being called upon to sacrifice a little something for the common good, I don't think it's out of line to ask people like the Romneys to maybe forego yet more tax cuts, at least until things get better.
Incidentally, the tax money they saved - $109,000 - could fund the salary of two beginning teachers for a year.