EDITORIAL REVISITING PROP. 13 PROPERTY TAX SYSTEM IS OUT OF WHACK BUT STATE LEADERS LACK COURAGE TO FIX IT.

CALIFORNIA'S method of taxing property owners is the most iniquitous system possible, clobbering some taxpayers and letting others skate.

Because homeowners got fed up with being gouged on property taxes 25 years ago, voters defied the power brokers, pundits and politicians and approved Proposition 13, rolling back tax rates and tightly limiting increases.

That sent a shock wave through the political system. But instead of heeding the public's message and getting down to work on the people's problems, the politicians on both sides of the aisles went on strike.

The result is that California's infrastructure has rotted. Public schools have gone from the nation's best to one of the nation's worst. Water issues have gone unresolved. The state is far worse off than it was 25 years ago and its tax system is a disaster.

But it's not Proposition 13's fault. It's the political leadership of the state that has failed to do its duty, allowing gross inequities to develop.

For instance, a first-time home buyer now may face property tax bills 10 times those of their next-door neighbors who bought in the 1970s. Yet each gets the same benefit from tax-supported government services.

But rather than fix what's broken in Proposition 13 by making the system fairer, legislators try to sneak around its badly needed protections. They succeeded a few years ago by rolling back the two-thirds requirement for tax hikes for school bonds to 55 percent. Last year, they tried again with Proposition 56, which would have done the same thing for other public services. Voters recognized it for the scam it was.

Now freshman Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, R-Westlake Village, wants to lower the annual tax bill for first-time buyers by about a quarter, giving relief on the average of $1,200 a year. This is a well-intentioned effort to right the wrongs wrought by Prop. 13, though it is clearly just a piecemeal improvement of a system that needs a total overhaul.

But don't hold your breath. As state lawmakers go into another year with an $8 billion budget deficit hanging over them like a razor-sharp guillotine it seems unlikely they would embrace a measure that would give them less tax money. Last year, the public paid $32 billion in property tax. As it is, Californians will be lucky if they survive the year without another tax increase from Sacramento to help them pay for years of free-wheeling spending.

More than a quarter-century after Proposition 13, the state needs another tax revolt. We need some updated version of this landmark measure that protects the public from outrageous tax bills while ensuring that all taxpayers are treated fairly. The overall tax bill doesn't have to go up; the burden just has to be shared more equitably.

But don't count on Sacramento lawmakers screwing up the courage to tackle the problem with integrity. If real reform is going to come, it will be up to the people, once again, to take matters into their own hands.