Why is it a joke? Your property value went up significantly, you are in fact a winner. Why should you get to shirk your responsibility to your community?
I say it is unjust for a fixed income senior citizen or disability insurance recipient to have their property tax base grow to a point where they must flee their home of decades. The callus answer is to force the person to sell and take their gains and move so a younger person with higher wages can afford their once-home. I think it is unjust to remove an older, less abled, and less employment-opportunitied person from their environment.
Any senior citizen who owns their home (mortgage all or mostly paid off) can take out whatever size mortgage necessary to pay property taxes. Since it's backed by the house's larger value itself.
Who's making them "flee their home"...? That would only happen if it's already mortgaged to the hilt, but then they're already on the verge of losing it anyways.
They could take an loan against the unrealized gain on their asset if they'd like to continue living there. If they'd rather sell and keep the cash, that's their choice. Letting them both keep the windfall and shortchange their community doesn't make sense.
In addition, California (and I suspect other states) have a means tested property tax postponement program that allows low income homeowners to defer taxes until they move out, sell, refinance, or die as a substitute for obtaining a private loan.
