How does never having to pay property taxes again sound? Right now, people in North Dakota are voting to do just that.
If the vote passes, North Dakota would lose a whopping $812 million in revenue from the property tax.
Those who support eliminating the tax said a recent oil boom in the state could make up for the lost revenue.
Obviously, North Dakota is far smaller in both population and size than California.
But property taxes still dominate in revenue for the state, and right here on the central coast.
Tuesday, the Center for Investigative Action went to work to find out if eliminating property taxes are even feasible in California and locally.
Monterey County alone brings in $500 million, that's just one county, and it's more than half of North Dakota's $800 million.
A quick lesson on property taxes in CA. The rate is one percent of the property's assessed cash value.
The money comes from homeowners in all 58 counties and goes to the state. The state Board of Equalization then divies up the money back to individual counties.
Two years ago, the state brought in $50 billion in property taxes. That money goes mostly to schools, then counties' and cities' general funds.
For example, last year Monterey County property taxes was $500 million. The county gets 15-17% of that back, about $75 million or three quarters of the county's billion dollar budget.
Monterey County Assessor Steve Vagnini said the reduction on property tax revenue is part of the reason the state is in the hole by billions of dollars.
"For many years CA was getting by because property values were going up, up, up and revenues were good and that's why we had a surplus for awhile, but it wouldn't be possible."
Right now, CA is fighting a $16 billion budget shortfall.
