If you're talking about property taxes, you might want to read up about Prop 13(1978) and how it fundamentally altered the tax base of California.

There are some good points that we are still fighting the after effects of this policy to this day. A good example would be how business owners encapsulate their properties to not trigger the re-assessment of the property to current values. It explains a number of the remaining low cost/slum-lord apartments still around.