Bills that threaten homeowners and small businesses are currently moving through the legislature!
The new Legislature is dominated by pro-tax politicians who have a two-thirds supermajority in Sacramento. Bills that undermine the taxpayer protections in Proposition 13 have been introduced and are being heard in committees. If approved, these bills could cost every property owner thousands of dollars annually.
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As one of the largest grassroots anti-tax organizations in the nation, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association relies on the support of our Members, which allows us to influence legislation and protect taxpayers. Please use “Contact Your Representative” to the left of this page to urge your representative to support taxpayers when voting on the following important bills.
NOTE TO HJTA MEMBERS: For an updated status on any of these bills, please go to http://leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html and type in the bill number in the space provided. For questions regarding a position on a bill, please contact HJTA Legislative Director Scott Kaufman at scott@hjta.org.
Tell your representatives that you oppose these bills, which attack your Proposition 13 protections.
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Check back often to see the latest threats to Proposition 13 and to learn how you can fight back.
| HJTA Position | Bill | Topic | Status | Author | Description | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opposed | ACA 1 | Local government financing: affordable housing and public infrastructure: voter approval | Active at end of Session. Likely to return. | Cecilia Aguiar-Curry | ACA 1 repeals one of the most important protections in Proposition 13 by lowering the existing two-thirds vote threshold for both local bonds and special taxes to 55 percent for a myriad of purposes. | Assembly |
| Opposed | ACA 11 | Taxes to fund health care coverage and cost control. | Active at end of Session. Likely to return. | Ash Kalra | At nearly $163 billion per year, this would be the largest tax increase in California history. The measure would also authorize the Legislature to increase tax rates by a majority vote of both houses of the Legislature. | Assembly |
| HJTA Position | Bill | Topic | Status | Author | Description | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Support | AB 1839 | Property tax: tax-defaulted property sales. | Assembly-Failed Passage in Committee-Revenue and Taxation | Steven Choi | Requires that a sale by public auction or sealed bid, also referred to as a Chapter 7 tax sale, be conducted before a sale by agreement, also referred to as a Chapter 8 tax sale and extends the period during which a party of interest may collect the excess proceeds. | Assembly |
| Support | AB 217 | Sales and use taxes: exemption: tax holiday: school supplies. | Assembly-Died-Appropriations | Suzette Valladares | This bill would exempt from those taxes the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, qualified school supplies, as defined, for the three-day period. | Assembly |
| Support | AB 243 | Personal income tax: deduction: medical expenses. | Assembly-Died-Appropriations | This bill would allow a deduction for medical and dental expenses that exceed 4% of federal adjusted gross income. | Assembly | |
| Support | AB 248 | Income taxes: credits: cleaning and sanitizing supplies: COVID-19. | Assembly-Died-Revenue and Taxation | Steven Choi | This bill would allow a credit against those taxes incurred by the qualified taxpayer during the taxable year for the purchase of cleaning and sanitizing supplies used at business locations in the state to prevent the transmission of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). | Assembly |
| Support | AB 2898 | Property taxation: exemption: principal residence: veterans and their unmarried surviving spouses. | Assembly-In Committee Process-Appropriations | Vince Fong | This bill expands the disabled veterans property tax exemption by doubling the allowable exemption amount to $200,000, or $300,000 if the household income of the claimant does not exceed $40,000 (adjusted for inflation). | Assembly |
| Support | AB 324 | Income taxes: credits: attic vent closures. | Assembly-Died-Appropriations | Steven Choi | This bill would allow a credit against taxes to a qualified taxpayer that installs an attic vent closure in a residential property in an amount equal to 40% of the qualified costs paid or incurred by the qualified taxpayer for that installation. | Assembly |
| Support | AB 704 | Personal income taxes: deduction: qualified education loans. | Assembly-Died-Appropriations | Chad Mayes | This bill would remove the cap and allow student loan interest to be deducted annually for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2028. | Assembly |
| Support | AB 834 | Income tax credits: leased or rented property: persons receiving housing services or assistance. | Assembly-Died-Revenue and Taxation | Steven Choi | This bill would allow a credit against those taxes to a taxpayer that owns a unit rented to, or leased by, persons receiving housing services or assistance at below market rates. | Assembly |
| Oppose | AB 854 | Residential real property: withdrawal of accommodations. | Assembly-Died-Third Reading | Alex Lee | This bill is an attack on property owners that would prohibit the buyers of rent-controlled apartment buildings from exiting the rental housing business, even if they were losing money, until they had owned the building for at least five years. | Assembly |
| Support | AB 91 | Taxation: corporations: minimum franchise tax: limited liability companies: annual tax: small businesses: microbusinesses. | Assembly-Died-Revenue and Taxation | Suzette Valladares | This bill would reduce the minimum franchise tax to $400 for small businesses, as defined, and to $200 for microbusinesses | Assembly |
| Support | SB 1156 | Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax: Diesel Fuel Tax: inflation adjustment. | Senate-In Committee Process-Governance and Finance | Shannon Grove | This bill would put an end to the automatic inflation adjustment in the gasoline and diesel excise tax and offer Californians permanent and much-needed relief at the pump. | Senate |
| Support | SB 1367 | No-bid public contracts: behested payments. | Senate-In Committee Process-Governmental Organization | Scott Wilk | This bill would prohibit a state agency, as defined, from awarding a contract for which the state agency has not secured at least 3 competitive bids or proposals to a company that has made a behested payment at the behest of the Governor in the preceding 12 months. | Senate |
| Support | SB 947 | Whistleblowers: private entities awarded large state contracts. | Assembly-In Committee Process-Judiciary | Scott Wilk | This bill would expand these provisions to certain private entities awarded large state contracts, as defined, and their employees. Because this bill would create a new crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program. | Assembly |
| Support | SCA 8 | Wildfires: funding. | Senate-In Committee Process-Elections and Constitutional Amendments | Jim Nielsen | This measure would revise and recast the California Fire Response Fund and the Special District Fire Response Fund to annually transfer an amount equal to 1% of specified state revenues from the General Fund to the California Fire Response Fund. | Senate |
| HJTA Position | Bill | Topic | Status | Author | Description | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oppose | Assembly Bill 257 | Food facilities and employment. | Chaptered | Chris Holden | Imposes sector-wide minimum standards at fast-food chains. While not a direct taxpayer issue, it is a government mandate that will significantly increase costs that will be passed onto the consumer like an indirect tax. | Secretary of State |
| Oppose | Assembly Bill 1227 | Firearms and ammunition: excise tax. | Senate-Died-Third Reading | Marc Levine | Taxing law-abiding gun owners that put safety first is not the way to address the problem of gun violence. | Senate |
| Support | Assembly Bill 1249 | Income taxes: gross income exclusions: wildfires. | Chaptered | James Gallagher | Clarifies that victims of the Butte Fire, North Bay Fires and the Camp Fire are exempt from state gross income tax for amounts received from PG&Es Fire Victims Trust. | Secretary of State |
| Oppose | Assembly Bill 2582 | Recall elections: local offices. | Chaptered | Steve Bennett | Requires a local recall election to include only the question of whether the elected officer should be removed from office, which will then either be filled by appointment or a special election. | Secretary of State |
| Oppose | Assembly Bill 2584 | Recall elections. | Chaptered | Marc Berman | Eliminates the ability to have a stand-alone local special recall election and would allow special interest groups to litigate the statement of reasons given for the recall and to sue proponents for libel. | Secretary of State |
| Oppose | Assembly Bill 2780 | Dissolution of redevelopment agencies: enhanced infrastructure financing districts: City of Selma. | Chaptered | Joaquin Arambula | Authorizes the City of Selma to initiate an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD). This creates a much greater risk for the bond holders and taxpayers, resulting in higher interest rates and thus less money for projects. This bill sets a bad precedent for other cities. | Secretary of State |
| Oppose | Senate Bill 54 | Solid waste: reporting, packaging, and plastic food service ware. | Chaptered | Ben Allen | Places an unnecessary fee on the production of single-use packaging and plastic single-use food service ware that are part of many Californians daily lives and it will only exacerbate skyrocketing costs in this difficult economic climate. | Secretary of State |
| Oppose | Senate Bill 679 | Los Angeles County: affordable housing. | Chaptered | Sydney Kamlager | Establishes the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency and would authorize the agency to, among other things, raise and allocate taxes, incur, and issue bonds and other indebtedness, and place tax measures on the ballot in Los Angeles County | Secretary of State |
| Support | Senate Bill 1246 | Income taxes: gross income exclusions: wildfires. | Chaptered | Henry Stern | Provides a tax exemption from state gross income tax settlement awards from Southern California Edison for victims of the Woolsey and Thomas Fires in Southern California. | Secretary of State |
| Support | Senate Bill 1271 | Contracts for the acquisition of goods or services: extension or renewal: legislative oversight. | Chaptered | Scott Wilk | Amends the public contract code to require no bid contracts of $25 million or more entered on or after January 1, 2023, to be subject to the oversight hearing of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee prior to a renewal or extension of the contract. | Secretary of State |