In Nevada and especially in Las Vegas, land prices are skyrocketing. This has created a tremendous increase property assessments and unrealized gains for  all property owners . Today, under current law, this also generates tremendous windfall increases in local and state government revenues from property taxes. This is unfair to all property owners, especially homeowners on fixed incomes. After all, you cannot just sell your home to pay your property tax. Where would you live?

Even worse is the impact windfall revenue will have on state and local governments. Based upon their past behavior, we can expect them to spend their windfall tax revenues hiring new employees, further bloating government job rolls and setting us up for a "budget crisis" when revenue returns to a reasonable level of growth. TABOR solves this circular "over-tax and then spend" problem.

Chart data provided by Richard Rychtarik

Faced with steep property tax growth in the 1970s, California passed Proposition 13 to cap homeowners' property tax growth at 2% per year. It turned out to be like prescribing a couple aspirin for someone with a brain tumor: temporary relief of a symtpom but the patient got sicker and sicker.

Within a few short years, government had shifted its appetite to other taxes and fees, and resumed growing faster than the underlying society it is supposed to serve. California's quality of life continued to decline, and today Californians are moving to Nevada as fast as they can retire and sell their homes. Could that happen in Nevada? It seems likely in a Legislature where two-thirds of the members are, or are married to, current or retired career government employees.

Another point to keep in mind is that a cap passed by the 2005 Legislature could be changed or even removed by a future legislature. A citizen initiative cannot. One reason why legislators who just last session voted to increase your property tax rate are now fans of a cap is that they hope to defuse this summer's effort to pass a citizen initiative.

Nevada needs a citizen initiative to provide the permanent property tax relief championed by such heroes as Assemblywoman Sharron Angle. And TABOR.

TABOR offers true reform. By capping excessive government growth, TABOR stops (prevents) windfall revenue collection from property tax.  Simultaneously, TABOR also constrains local and state government from collecting excessive and unwarranted revenue using (via) other forms of taxes and fees.