California voters faced a shocking total of 531 local tax increases and bond measures (which raise property taxes) on the November ballot. But one thing they didn’t see on their ballot was the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act (TPA).
TPA was fully qualified for the November ballot thanks to the signatures of 1.4 million California voters. But then, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders decided to file a lawsuit to have it removed from the ballot before Californians could get to the polls and pass it.
The governor’s team argued that the Taxpayer Protection Act made it too hard to raise taxes, and therefore it was a “revision” of the state constitution instead of an “amendment” and could not be enacted through the initiative process, but only through a state constitutional convention called by the government itself.
By a unanimous vote of 7–0, the California Supreme Court deferred to the governor and ordered the secretary of state to remove TPA from the ballot.
The state’s high court has now given the state government the power to gut the initiative process enshrined in the state constitution in 1911. Yet the whole purpose of the initiative was to check the power of the government.
Sadly, there was no path to appeal the state Supreme Court’s decision. HJTA consulted with top constitutional lawyers, but unfortunately, the decision is a state matter without a federal issue that the U.S. Supreme Court would consider.
HJTA will not stand idly by and watch the people’s constitutional rights be erased. Click here to see how you can support our efforts to fight for taxpayers in the legislature, in the courts and on the ballot.