2007 HJTA Legislative Report Card

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Annual Legislative Report Card is designed to help Californians gauge how their state representatives are performing on taxpayer-related issues. For the 2007 legislative session, 49 bills were used to evaluate and grade voting records. Practically all of these bills deal with tax increases — often masquerading as fees — or direct assaults on Proposition 13 and Proposition 218, the Right to Vote on Taxes Act.

In a change from previous years, we have double-weighted those bills with the most serious consequences for taxpayers. These bills we have dubbed "Taxpayer Traps" and are included in bold under the Threats to Taxpayers section under Legislative Action on this website.

Finally, we triple-weighted Assembly Constitutional Amendment 8, our number one target this legislative session. While portraying itself as an eminent domain reform measure, ACA 8 actually would have inserted more loopholes into the takings process, making it easier for local governments to seize property, including homes, for the benefit of other private interests.

2007 LEGISLATIVE REPORT CARD

NOTE:
* Senators Battin and Vincent, and Assembly Members Soto and Strickland, missed a number of votes for illness or important personal reasons. Assembly Member Richardson missed votes due to being elected to Congress. Missed votes can have an impact on the final grade and make the results a less reliable measure of a lawmaker's true attitude regarding taxpayer issues.

Some bills included opposition from the "Stop the Hidden Taxes Coalition," of which HJTA is a member. This was sometimes used in place of a direct letter from the organization.

HJTA's "Taxpayer Traps," or the bills that would have the most impact on taxpayers, were weighted double. These have been bolded under the "Bill List" tab.

Assembly Constitutional Amendment 8, HJTA's #1 target, was triple-weighted.

SB 1, SB 93 and SB 976 were "gut and amend" bills included on the scorecard. Only those votes beginning with the major amendments were included.

2006 LEGISLATIVE REPORT CARD

Assembly Member Tom Harman left the Assembly in June 2006 to fill John Campbell's vacant Senate seat.

Report Card on California's Legislators for 2005

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Annual Legislative Report Card has been developed as a tool to help California taxpayers better understand how their state representatives are voting on taxpayer-related bills. For the 2005 legislative season, we chose fifty-three bills to use as a basis to track these voting patterns, and ultimately, to assign each legislator the grade he or she earned. Please know that it is very important to HJTA that this process be as fair and as non-partisan as possible. 

We encourage you to see how your legislators scored. Then we'd also encourage you to take the next — and most important — step, and contact your legislator's office to express your support or concern.

If he or she has protected taxpayer rights and Proposition 13, please offer your praise and encouragement. But if either of your representatives in Sacramento have been working against your best interests, a reminder to start protecting Proposition 13 and taxpayer rights can only help.

We have provided contact information online for both the Assembly and the Senate. If you don't know who represents your area, visit this page.

* NOTE: Assemblyman Tom Harman is claiming he received an A grade from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers for his voting record; that was for 2004. In 2005, Harmon lost his A grade because he has been promoting legislation to take away the taxpayers' right to vote on taxes.

2005 LEGISLATIVE REPORT CARD

See the 2004 Report Card.

See the 2003 Report Card.