War on Prop. 13

Unicorns don’t exist in the real world and taxpayer heroes do not exist in the majority in the California Assembly. Despite warnings from a massive coalition of taxpayer advocates, real estate interests and business groups, 56 members of the California Legislature just passed two of the most destructive bills possible by declaring war on Proposition 13.

How harmful to Proposition 13 are these two proposals? We’ve never seen worse.

Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 is a direct attack on Proposition 13 that would remove the taxpayer protection of the two-thirds vote of the electorate required to pass local special taxes. If this measure is enacted, local taxes and bonds for “infrastructure” and public housing projects would pass with just 55% of the vote instead of 66.67%. 

At the same time that ACA 1 would make it easier to raise your taxes, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 13 would make it much harder to do anything about it. ACA 13 is a brazen attempt to change the rules for passing constitutional amendments.

ACA 1 lowers the two-thirds vote for local bonds repaid only by property owners. That two-thirds vote requirement has existed since 1879.  For more than 140 years, it has been a check against excessive property taxes and bonded indebtedness that creates a lien on real property.

State senators must reject both ACA 1 and ACA 13. To do otherwise will communicate to their constituents that they are focused only on raising taxes and care little for the plight of hardworking families in their district.

Jon Coupal, president, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association