Random Letters: 2-4-21

A Little Gratitude Goes a Long Way

My husband and I are generous to the local community nonprofits. We do this because we are blessed: roof over head, food on the table and money in the bank. I went back through my donation receipts from last year, which were substantial in numbers, if not in dollars. Especially Giving Tuesday. We gave to most who asked. I received about 30 printed tax forms and two hand written notes. My children and those two organizations who had the time to hand write a note (whether it was for $5, or $5,000) are going to be happy. I have reached a point in my life where kindness and gratitude are essential. 

Buy some note paper and have your children write notes, send a photo, do something personal to be remembered.

Arlene Dickey, San Pedro

Absurd Prop. 19 Deadline

I am writing to express extreme displeasure with the legislature’s decision to impose a Feb. 16 deadline on California homeowners to transfer property to their children, or face massive property tax increases. Giving families a three-month window to decide whether to transfer their homes, in the middle of a global pandemic and national vaccine rollout is, quite frankly, absurd. This short window of time shows how clueless our Sacramento legislators actually are.

How can anyone find out the necessary information to learn about a 35 year old rule change in the middle of a pandemic? All of the county’s offices are closed to the public! Some estate planning firms are charging anywhere from $1,000 to $2,700, just for the consultation alone. One local law firm estimates that getting the actual work done for Prop. 19 planning is a minimum of $12,000. Is it reasonable to expect low or middle income families to be able to seek adequate counsel at these prices in the middle of a global pandemic and national vaccine rollout? 

Why not extend the deadline until families can better understand how these changes will affect them? The Los Angeles County Assessor said on Friday this rule change is the biggest change to property tax administration since Prop. 13 was passed in 1978! The additional stress created on families to meet this ridiculous deadline is unfair and inappropriate, and any legislator who voted in favor of ACA 11 should be ashamed of themselves.

Christopher Yang, San Pedro

Prop. 19 has now passed in California, and with it brought changes to how property tax is reassessed for some purchases, effective April 1, 2021. The new law replaces Prop. 60 and Prop. 90, affecting replacement property by homeowners who are over 55, severely disabled, or whose home has been substantially damaged by wildfires or natural disaster. It allows the homeowners to transfer their original home’s taxable value to a replacement property. It’s unclear as of yet how properties sold prior to April 1 will be treated if the replacement purchase occurs after this date. Regardless, the replacement purchase must occur within two years of the original property’s sale. Under prior law, this type of reassessment could only be applied if the purchase was made in the same county as the prior residence or in specific counties. Under new law, it applies throughout California. Additionally, prior law required the replacement home to have equal or lesser value than the original home. Prop. 19 has provisions for an adjusted rate in a circumstance where the value is greater. The adjusted rate is calculated as the original home’s taxable value plus the difference between the replacement home’s purchase price and the original home’s sale price. This reassessment can be applied up to three times, or indefinitely any time that it is applied under the provisions for substantial property damage. With Prop. 19 also came a change to intergenerational transfers. Previously, a child or grandchild could inherit a property with no change to the property tax amount. Effective Feb. 16, 2021, that exemption from reassessment applies only while the heir is using the property as their primary residence, and only if the heir claims a homeowner’s or disabled veteran’s exemption within one year of the transfer. The new law also requires that the property continue to be used as the child or grandchild’s primary residence. Once the property is no longer their primary residence, the property will be reassessed.

If the value of the inherited property is more than $1 million greater than the original purchase value, there will be a partial reassessment. Essentially, the heir is allowed to use the original purchase value, plus $1 million as the baseline property value. Above that, normal property taxes are applied.

In addition, family farms are now also included in properties that can retain their taxable value when transferred. Farms are not subject to the primary residence test, however all other qualifications and exemptions apply.

By Marlowe Clark from  BeachChatter

Anti-Vaxxer Protest

From the folks who brought us the Dodger Stadium anti-vaxxer protest—now  the recall Gavin Newsom Petition.

They’d rather have Ron De Santis as our governor. Funny there’s no mention of Saturday’s Dodger Stadium protests. They got press coverage all over the world: WAPO, NYT, CBS, ABC, NBC, BBC, Al Jazeera, Jerusalem Post   RT, Democracy Now!, India Times, I did screenshots of the news. coverage if anybody wants them.

They got all that coverage but not a word appears about their event on Saturday in this, their latest email blast. 

No LAPD Arrests like the ones on Xmas and New Years either. The covidiots are organized.

Charles LaMont, San Pedro 

Death for Donald

Jan. 6, 2021 — a day that will live in infamy!  Or should I say — insane stupidity? Speaking of infamous idiocy, traitor Donald Trump deserves to die. 

Now, let me be clear — I am not calling for anyone to do anything, nor would I ever be willing to be the hand of fate myself. But rest assured, unless Orange Hitler and his crackpot criminal family hide out in Nazi-friendly Argentina for the rest of their washed-up lives, demonic Donald and/or his evil brood will eventually pay the ultimate price.

It’s about time we had an honest, unfiltered public conversation about whether or not demagogue Donald Trump deserves the death penalty for his treason against our democratic republic and for his treacherous crimes against humanity. 

Trump unofficially implemented a genocidal strategy of herd immunity during the still worsening COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to deranged Donald’s disastrously failed, lunatic lynch mob coup d’etat attempt by his murderous, marauding, hateful hillbilly fascist fan club.

Hundreds of thousands of your fellow Americans are now needlessly dead, because demented Donald Trump wanted it that way!  The still grieving family members deserve swift justice, not the usually disgraceful, typical outcome whereby rich psychopaths are able to buy their way out of any and every crime they commit. 

The day domestic terrorist traitor Donald Trump dies by natural causes or otherwise, there will be a spontaneous, massive worldwide party and all are invited, except for you inbred, insurrectionist neo-Confederate Nazi creeps.

Considering the fact that the blood of so many Americans is on the tiny hands of genocidal domestic terrorist Donald Trump, the death penalty for diabolical Donald is absolutely necessary!  The only question left now is the method of execution.  Firing squad on 5th Avenue, perhaps?  Wouldn’t that be ironic?

Jake Pickering, Arcata, CA

Trump’s Trial is Constitutional

Sen. Rand Paul is trying to do a clever maneuver to supersede our laws and regulations and hide behind the Constitution to avoid addressing one of the most serious violations of our Constitution and misbehavior of any president in history. Rand Paul is using his faulty statements in order to avoid impeachment for Donald Trump.

This is brute force politics in which in which former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republicans have practiced for over 5 years. McConnell had closed the Senate until Jan. 19, preventing a second Trump impeachment trial from beginning while the former president trump was still in office.

This political maneuver was a moot point because in 1876 when President Grant’s Secretary of War, William W. Belknap, resigned just before he was to be impeached for corruption, the House went ahead anyway and so did a Senate trial, neither of which actions fit Paul’s reasoning.

If the Republican senators acquit the former president on spurious jurisdictional grounds, they have neglected their highest duty to our constitution which they are supposed to uphold. The Constitution demands that they act to preserve our democracy for future generations. Impeaching and trying Trump are the first steps toward ending domestic terrorism and restoring civil order.

John Winkler, San Pedro

Let’s Hope…

Thanks for the Random Lengths’ insightful news coverage of the national election. Congratulations to President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.  

Harris does not have a good record on civil rights, fair housing or police reform. I hope that is not the reason she was elected. I had personal litigation experiences with her in 2016 when as California Attorney General she opposed my efforts to assure full and equal housing privileges for tenants across the state. 

It will take more than a change of two leaders at the White House to make a difference in the status quo and its trickle down effect. Let’s hope that the Vice President’s heritage and gender will help her to become a better elected official than is expected. Good luck to us all.

G. Juan Johnson, Los Angeles