Another Election, Another Attempt To Cripple Prop. 13

The attempt to overturn the popular Proposition 13, which limits annual increases in property taxes, is back….again.  The Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association reported recently that proponents of an initiative to raise property taxes in California have turned over 1.7 million signatures to qualify the measure for the November 3 ballot this year.

The initiative, which would raise property taxes in the state by $12 billion, is called the California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act of 2020. It would remove one Prop. 13’s most important protections—the limitation on annual increases in taxable value—from business and commercial properties, reports Jon Coupal, president of the HJTA. The increased tax burden would be passed along to consumers and taxpayers who already are struggling with California’s high cost of living, he noted.

Lamorinda Republican Women Federated supports the HJTA’s assessment and urges its members to speak out on the subject, said Eve Gordon, president. “As we have learned, the title of a measure can actually mean something entirely different. This is no exception.” Numerous efforts to divide the property tax roll have failed since Prop. 13 passed in 1978 but most never made it to the ballot and the one that did was rejected

Originally this latest version to “split” the tax roll was intended for the 2018 ballot. Although enough signatures were collected, the backers missed the ballot and rolled it over to this year’s ballot. And since they original version contained drafting errors, they chose to start all over again, said Coupal. 

Interestingly, the proponents raised some $17 million for the two proposals, and had to pay professional signature gatherers, he continued. These are the people who stand outside big-box stores trying to get people to sign, paying them up to $10 per signature.  Comparatively, when the original measure was put on the ballot in 1978, more than 1.2 signatures were submitted with only $28,500 spent to qualifying the measure and that was to cover costs for printing and mailing. 

Gordon cautioned that while proponents are boasting in their press release about “making history with the most signatures ever submitted”, not all Democrats are enthused. Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor, has come out against it.

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