I'd have to do the math but to me it seems like ridiculous housing prices make up for prop 13, while also pushing the tax burden to those best equipped to handle it (people in the position to afford to buy expensive houses)
So while grandma's only paying taxes on a tax-appraised value of $200k for a home worth $1mm on the open market, people who buy today are paying tax on $1mm+ for homes that "should be" (or would be in other states) worth $200k.
Not really. See some of the charts here [1]. Key quotes to show the effect:
"The year before Proposition 13 passed, property taxes comprised over 90 percent of cities’ and counties’ local tax revenue. Today, that share is less than two–thirds."
"Cities’ and counties’ tax revenue per person has declined since Proposition 13. However, looking across all California local governments’ per–person revenue—excluding state and federal funds—revenues increased 36 percent since Proposition 13. In comparison, similar per–person revenues for local governments across the country increased by almost 70 percent over the same period."
Basically the state had to struggle to make up the tax revenue difference via other fees and assessments, and it never caught up to where it was before or to where it is in other states without such a measure.
So while grandma's only paying taxes on a tax-appraised value of $200k for a home worth $1mm on the open market, people who buy today are paying tax on $1mm+ for homes that "should be" (or would be in other states) worth $200k.