Always Check for the Government Union Label

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...

By Jon Coupal

Is California a Low Property Tax State?

Editor’s Note: When asking whether or not California is a low property tax state – it’s not, as taxpayer advocate Jon Coupal explains in this article – the parallel question is WHY, if property taxes are already high enough in California, are legislators trying to raise property taxes? Here is a list, courtesy of the Howard...

By Jon Coupal

Government Union Assault on Taxpayers Continues in California

Editor’s Note: This article discusses multiple proposals to raise taxes that are making the rounds in California’s government union controlled state legislature. Two in particular are mentioned, Senate Constitutional Amendment 5 that takes Prop 13 protections away from business owners, and Assembly Constitutional Amendment 4 that lowers the two-thirds vote requirement for local tax increases. On top...

By Jon Coupal

Unionized Government Means Higher Taxes and Less Transparency

Especially in California, the word “taxpayer” is frequently preceded by the word “beleaguered.” Given our large tax burden and the tragic level of government waste, perhaps there should be a grammatical rule that these two words must always be combined. While some California taxes are hidden, most are unfortunately and painfully obvious. But the same...

By Jon Coupal

Union Controlled State Legislature Shuts Down Debate on Minimum Wage

“End of discussion!” is what those on the political left yell in your face when they know they are losing an argument. It is also the name of a compelling new book by Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson with the revealing subtitle of “How the Left’s Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and...

By Jon Coupal

California's Government Union Quandary – Support More Taxes Yet Claim Budget "Surpluses"

Californians know them well. They are the Proposition 13 “blamers.” They blame Proposition 13 for everything they see or even imagine as negative in the state of California. Some years ago, a newspaper editorial asked if Proposition 13 was responsible for a measles epidemic saying it may have limited the availability of vaccine. A national...

By Jon Coupal

California's Union Controlled Legislature to Consider Raising Taxes in Special Session

Jerry Brown, who as a candidate for governor in 2010 repeatedly pledged he wouldn’t raise taxes without a popular vote, has called for a special session of the Legislature for the purpose of raising taxes. This despite the fact that general fund revenues have outstripped estimates by almost $6 billion. So now we have the...

By Jon Coupal

Proposition 13 – Protection Against Government Union Greed

In its more than 160 plus year history, few things have remained constant in California. However, since the 1800’s California has taxed all classes of property the same. Thus, when the iconic Prop 13 passed in 1978, it did not differentiate between different kinds of property. All real property – whether residential or commercial –...

By Jon Coupal

Raising Gas Taxes While Unions Support Billions for Bullet Train

Editor’s Note: It is difficult to find a better example of how California’s labor movement fails ordinary workers than their support for high speed rail. Because that project, using foreign sourced materials and yielding virtually no benefits – economic, environmental, or societal – that justify the cost, is at the expense of projects that are...

By Jon Coupal

Union Offensive Against Prop. 13 Gains Momentum

There’s a joke about public sector union bosses making the rounds in Sacramento lately: What happens when the California Legislature hands over a blank check to the California Teachers Association (CTA)? It’s returned the next day marked “insufficient.” No matter that spending on schools is up 36 percent over the last four years, the state...

By Jon Coupal

Unions Continue Attack Prop. 218, the Right to Vote on Taxes Act

At the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA), we have seen Proposition 13 blamed for just about everything. A national publication blamed the tax limiting measure for the not guilty verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, while a high school physical education coach wrote in a community paper that the loss of shots by his...

By Jon Coupal

Courts Deny Government Unions An Opportunity for Revenue

Editor’s Note: As documented in two recent California Policy Center studies, “Examining Public Pay in California: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and “Alameda County Water District Rate Increase Driven by Labor Costs, Not Drought,” no crisis, including a drought, is missed when it comes to seizing opportunities to increase revenue in order to...

By Jon Coupal

Another Consequence of Unionized Government's Insatiable Appetite for Revenue

Even good drivers get an occasional ticket. But in the last several years, there has been a perverse incentive for eagle-eyed enforcement officers to issue even more citations. We are now discovering that California drivers are a goldmine for government by the imposition of traffic fines that are absurdly excessive. As recently as 2005, a...

By Jon Coupal