Raise taxes by fiat, lower them with default

Fresno County's assessor on Thursday submitted a final $57.3 billion tax roll for the coming year, locking in higher property taxes for thousands of agricultural landowners and ensuring an increase in the county's total tax stream for the first time in three years.

While most residential and commercial property remained flat or lost value this year, assessments of farmland rose as crop prices went up and new production began. And, according to the Assessor's Office, a lot of farmland had not been reassessed – sometimes for decades – meaning tax bills due out this fall also will reflect years of unrecorded gains.

The farm tax hikes will average 23%. Fresno Bee

The effort to get assessed values lower is complex, long and costly. The process to raise assessed value is a stroke of the pen. That is called asymmetry, designed to cause default.