Property Tax Trivia
This famous 1978 California ballot measure, passed by voters, capped property taxes at 1% of assessed value and limited annual increases to 2%.
What is Proposition 13?
This sawmill site in Coloma is where James W. Marshall discovered gold in 1848, sparking the California Gold Rush.
What is Sutter's Mill?
California’s state rock that James has valued by the ton
What is gold?
The hobby James pursues with a tripod instead of a drill rig
What is photography?
This animated family debuted on The Tracey Ullman Show
Who are The Simpsons?
This U.S. state has the highest effective property tax rate in the nation, often exceeding 2% in many counties.
What is New Jersey?
This famous Death Valley operation used 20-mule teams to haul borax and inspired a popular cleaning product brand.
What is the Harmony Borax Works?
The 1994 earthquake that triggered a tsunami of reassessment work for James
What is Northridge?
The beverage that has kept James vertical through 36 tax seasons
What is coffee?
This structure fell in November 1989 while James was still learning the ropes
What is the Berlin Wall?
Under California's Proposition 13, property is generally reassessed to current market value only upon this event or new construction.
What is a change in ownership (or sale of the property)?
Now a state historic park in Grass Valley, this hard-rock gold mine was one of California's richest, operating until 1956.
What is the Empire Mine?
The only rare-earth mine in the United States, reopened in 2011 in San Bernardino County
What is Mountain Pass?
The activity James plays when he’s not appraising around mines.
What is travel and photo shoot
This Apple device launched in 2007 and made James finally retire his flip phone
What is the iPhone?
This state boasts the lowest effective property tax rate in the U.S., around 0.3%, despite having some of the highest home values.
What is Hawaii?
This massive open-pit operation in Boron is California's largest mine and supplies nearly half the world's borates.
What is the Rio Tinto Borax Mine (or U.S. Borax Mine)?
The metal that went from waste rock to California’s hottest commodity since 2015 because of Tesla batteries
What is lithium?
The golden-hour subject James loves photographing almost as much as his grandchildren
What are abandoned mines
This pandemic made James work from home in 2020 (and discover that sweatpants are taxable comfort)
What is COVID-19?
This iconic New York venue, home to Knicks games and concerts, has paid no property taxes since 1982 due to a special exemption agreement.
What is Madison Square Garden?
The world's largest hydraulic mining excavation, this Nevada County site (now a state park) exposed cliffs up to 600 feet high.
What is Malakoff Diggins?
The Imperial County open-pit operation that was California’s biggest gold producer for most of the 2000s–2010s
What is Mesquite Mine?
The one thing James owns more of than core-sample reports
What are camera lenses?
This social media app launched in 2010 that people use to post pictures instantly... that James still calls 'myspace"
What is… wait, no one knows because he’s never posted!