It's a little more complicated than that.

First of all, if you are harboring even the slightest illusion that all the "other" taxes I am paying would be any lower right now if the property tax was still sky-high, I've got a bridge I can sell you.

The California government is run by Democrats. There is no upper limit to the amount of money they think they need, and no upper limit to how high they think taxes ought to be, short of getting them thrown out of office in the next election. Every tax in California is as high as politicians think they can get away with. None of these would be lower if Prop 13 had never passed. This is proven every time there is a "surplus," and tax cutters think maybe people might want some of their money back. You can see how well that goes over. The government appetite for wealth is bottomless.

The reason the politicians got so mad about the Prop 13 limit on the property tax is because it was one of those taxes that increased "automatically," without the government having to officially "raise" them. Before Prop 13, it was great. All they had to do was sit in Sacramento, watch property values shoot up, and rake in the money while businesses and homeowners buckled. And all in complete innocence.

After Prop 13, if they did have to turn to other taxes like income taxes or sales taxes, they had to raise them right in front of everybody. Politicians hate that.

For another example of this kind of thing, check out why politicians fight "inflation indexing" of income or other taxes.

Proposition 13 passed with the approval of nearly two-thirds of California's voters. I'm sure, in the liberal worldview, you think this was because all the stupid bastards that make up the non-elite population were hypnotized by the Evil Rich and their Svengali-like advertising campaigns. That's up to you, I guess.

Many proposition attempts to somehow derail Prop 13 in later years have all been booted out the door by the electorate. More hypnosis, I'm sure.

I'm happy, and you know what? I'm glad businesses aren't paying through the nose either. I like businesses--they make the economy work. Heck, we had a surplus in California before the government tried to micromanage the power industry and dropped an entire skiploader of monkey wrenches into the market system.

Remember, the government appetite for wealth is bottomless. Every nickel kept out of the hands of the government is a victory. Sometimes, that's enough for now.