By Jon Coupal and Sharon Quirk-Silva | Prior to the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, it was not uncommon for seniors on fixed incomes who had already paid off their mortgages to nonetheless lose their homes because they couldn’t afford to pay their property taxes. While Proposition 13 continues to protect millions of older […]
California’s 2019 legislative session recently came to a merciful end. Despite the fact that the Legislature passed dozens of bills assaulting basic economic rights, it could have been far worse for taxpayers. Indeed, in remarkably good news, the most dangerous threat to Proposition 13 was defeated. Proposition 13 has been called the third rail of […]
By Jon Coupal and Martin Wilson | The tools of direct democracy — initiative, referendum and recall — are a powerful check against intransigent or corrupt politicians. These powers are enshrined in the California Constitution for reasons that are just as compelling in 2019 as they were in 1911. That’s when Governor Hiram Johnson, seeking […]
In a victory for taxpayers, the Fresno Superior Court decided in favor of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association on Thursday, ruling that special taxes proposed by a voter initiative are not exempt from the state constitution’s two-thirds vote requirement. At issue was Fresno’s Measure P, a sales tax initiative on the November 2018 ballot that proposed […]
It’s no secret that California, perhaps America’s most progressive state, is controlled by a political establishment openly hostile to the interests of taxpayers. Taxpayer victories over the state’s liberal power structure are rare, but they do happen. Last week, taxpayers prevailed in a long running lawsuit involving public funding for political campaigns. The dispute began […]
This past week a direct attack on Proposition 13 was resoundingly voted down by the California State Assembly. Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 would have changed a key element of Prop. 13 by lowering the current two-thirds vote needed to pass local bonds and special taxes — including parcel taxes — to just 55 percent. Bond […]
Another week, another lie about Proposition 13. Recall that last week this column burst the bubble on the myth that schools are “starved” for revenue. This week’s narrative from the Prop. 13 opponents is that California’s high fees for building homes and commercial property is due to Proposition 13 denying local governments the ability to […]
Whenever you see politicians and special interests throwing statistics around like the cafeteria food in “Animal House,” it’s a better-than-even bet that they’re distorting their respective claims about how we fund schools in California. Here are some basics about school financing that every taxpayer should know. First, it’s complicated. K-14 schools get funding from a […]
It’s bad enough that California taxes its citizens more than almost all other states, but adding insult to injury, government entities often cheat on the way that they collect taxes. This happens in several ways. First, there are times when a government entity knows a tax is illegal but imposes it anyway either hoping no […]
During a recent meeting with allied organizations concerned about California’s high taxes, the question on everyone’s mind was: why do our political adversaries continue to push for even more taxes given that the state has a huge budget surplus? Also, how much excess revenue is there? But like most questions involving public policy – and […]
