Government Union's New Taxes on Working Californians Stopped in Legislature – For Now

It’s been a long year in the Capitol for those of us who advocate against higher taxes, crushing regulations and wasteful government spending. The good news is that California taxpayers have prevailed in virtually all the major tax fights this year. The bad news is that, because the legislature convenes for two-year sessions, this is only halftime. On January 4, 2016 – less than 4 months from now – the same cast of characters will reconvene and we will have to fight many of the same battles yet again. Still, it is helpful to assess how homeowners and working Californians fared in the legislative process this year.

For Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, there is no higher priority than defending Proposition 13 against attacks. As a constitutional amendment, Prop 13 cannot be amended by the Legislature directly. But that doesn’t mean the politicians can’t inflict harm. Indeed, with a two-thirds vote of each house, the California Legislature can place proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot. And if an anti-Prop 13 measure is sufficiently enticing or deceptive, voters might unwittingly take away some of their own rights as taxpayers.

This past year, there were three such proposals. Two were efforts to lower the two-thirds vote requirement at the local level as a condition for higher taxes. This is an important part of Prop 13 because the higher vote threshold was put in place to prevent local governments from taking away the benefits of Prop 13’s reduced property tax burden by simply imposing new or higher levels of other local taxes. The third attack on Prop 13 was an effort to take away the provision that limits annual increases in the taxable value of property to two percent. Although not affecting all property owners, this dangerous bill was simply “Step 1” for the complete repeal of Prop 13.

As noted above, the good news is that all three proposals were vigorously opposed by HJTA and each was stopped. But the bad news is that these proposals to repeal or weaken Prop 13 will be back come January.

Over and above our Prop 13 victories, taxpayers also stopped a myriad of other taxes including one proposal that would have slammed every California family that relies on their car for work, errands or pleasure. That proposal would have imposed big increases in the gas tax, the cost of getting a license and the annual vehicle registration fee. Stopping that awful tax hike was a very high priority for the more than 200,000 members of HJTA.

An equally dreadful proposal to extend the sales tax to services – a bill which would slam taxpayers with over $100 billion in higher consumer costs every year – was also derailed, at least for now.

Wars are not fought alone and taxpayers should be very grateful to those legislators who stood on the right side. Because taxes imposed by the Legislature require a two-thirds vote, our allies had the votes to stop the attacks even though a large majority in both the Assembly and Senate never met a tax they didn’t like.

A huge vote of thanks is due to the Republicans and their leaders who stood united against the assault. But we should also note that several moderate Democrats withstood the withering criticism of their colleagues and the left-leaning media to actually represent the interests of their taxpaying constituents. That sort of courage is a rare thing in politics.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association — California’s largest grass-roots taxpayer organization dedicated to the protection of Proposition 13 and the advancement of taxpayers’ rights.