I made a brief foray into talk radio yesterday. Coming home from running a couple of errands I made the mistake of flipping radio stations and I came across a local live talk show railing against taxes -- specifically, two local measures in East County. One is a proposed increase in the sales tax, the other a property tax increase to help refurbish existing schools and build one new one.

I'm not going to get into the specifics of these measures. It's obvious to everyone that in the current economic climate any tax increases face an uphill battle.

However, the show host, (who shall remain nameless because even though he's conservative, he's not that bright) was arguing for the proposition that people who do not own property shouldn't be allowed to vote on property tax measures.

The "logic" of his argument was that renters don't pay property taxes and were therefore more likely to vote to approve property tax hikes.

I'm sure there's a study somewhere that may show that to be a fact.

But, as I pointed out, renters are affected by property tax hikes -- as though landlords are uniformly beneficient and don't pass on their increased costs to their renters.

The taxes are passed on in the form of higher rents. And everyone in that jurisdiction faces the same increase, so it doesn't even put landlords in a competitive disadvantage against other landlords. Whether or not renters are aware that increased property taxes will affect them is not sufficient reason for denying them the franchise.

The host also marshalled the argument that many landlords' rental income is insufficient to pay the mortgage on the property.

And why is that anyone but the landlord's fault?

Finally, as is often the case, an even better argument came to me hours after I hung up the phone.

If voting on property tax issues were limited to property owners, would the host support a law that prohibited property owners from passing on increased taxes to renters?

Argue the relative merits of various taxes all you want. But the pitting property owners against renters is the class warfare -- that's not something conservatives should be doing.