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 right 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 David Wolfe at david@hjta.org.
| HJTA Position | Bill Number | Topic | Status | Author | Description |
| HJTA Position | Bill Number | Topic | Status | Author | Description |
| HJTA Position | Bill Number | Topic | Status | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oppose | AB 274 | Sales and use taxes: exemption: food products. | Defeated in State Assembly | Cristina Garcia | Implements the provisions of Assembly Constitutional Amendment 2 by removing the repeal of the voter approved "snack tax." This statewide ballot measure, which banned taxes on snacks, was approved by a 2:1 margin in the 1990's. |
| Oppose | AB 709 | Sacramento Regional Transit District. | Signed by Governor Brown | McCarty | Modifies the Sacramento Regional Transit District?s (SRTD) authority to impose a sales and use tax. AB 709 allows SRTD to impose a sales tax increment of 1/8 of one percent or a multiple thereof. HJTA believes government shouldn't make it easier for local government agencies to propose and implement taxes |
| Oppose | AB 1184 | City and County of San Francisco: local tax: transportation network companies: autonomous vehicles. | Signed by Governor Brown | Ting | Authorizes a new per-ride tax on Transportation Network Company (TNC) vehicles for carriers, including Uber and Lyft within the City and County of San Francisco. |
| Oppose | AB 1250 | Counties: contracts for personal services. | Defeated in State Senate | Jones-Sawyer | Establishes numerous provisions that will make it more difficult for local government entities to save taxpayer dollars by contracting services out to private entities. |
| Support | AB 1739 | Nonprobate transfers: revocable transfer on death deeds. | Signed by Governor Brown | Chau | Strengthens the recently enacted Transfer Upon Death deed program by making technical changes. A TOD deed can be used to help seniors transfer their property while avoiding a lenthy and costly probate process. |
| Support | AB 1756 | Transportation funding. | Defeated in State Assembly | Brough | Repeals the SB 1 gas and car tax established last year |
| Oppose | AB 1778 | Transit-Oriented Redevelopment Law of 2018. | Defeated in State Assembly | Holden | Creates a new type of redevelopment, ?Transit Oriented Redevelopment Districts? and uses tax increment financing, usually in the form of 40 year old bonds which don't require voter approval, in order to fund affordable housing programs |
| Support | AB 1864 | Personal income taxes: deductions: federal income tax paid. | Defeated in State Assembly | Kiley | SALT in reverse, this bill allows for the deduction of individuals full federal tax liability on their state tax returns. For high income earners in California, this could limit the potential tax burden brought about by the recently approved federal tax reform package |
| Support | AB 1922 | California Competitiveness and Innovation Act. | Defeated in State Assembly | Fong | Lowers income tax rates and increases the homeowner's exemption in order to help middle-class Californians. |
| Oppose | AB 1947 | Petitions: compensation for signatures. | Vetoed by Governor Brown | Low | Stipulates that paid signature gathering would be a misdemeanor and signatures would have to be gathered on an hourly rate. This bill violates First Amendment rights and impedes the appropriate use of the state initative process |
| Oppose | AB 2035 | Affordable housing authorities. | Signed by Governor Brown | Mullin | Expands the use of a new redevelopment tool, Community Revitalization and Investment Authority (CRIA) which still allows property to be taken via eminent domain and without voter approval. |
| Oppose | AB 2050 | Small System Water Authority Act of 2018. | Vetoed by Governor Brown | Caballero | Creates small system water authorities that could potentially be used to improve and potentially operatate non-compliant water systems not providing clean water. Because the new authority can bond without voter approval, HJTA opposes |
| Oppose | AB 2165 | Election day holiday. | Defeated in State Assembly | Low | Makes Election Day in an even-numbered year a paid holiday |
| Support | AB 2206 | Vehicles: registration information. | Defeated in State Assembly | Brough | Creates a separate line item on your DMV vehicle registration bill for the new SB 1 car tax, leading to more transparancy for taxpayers |
| Oppose | AB 2303 | Taxation: prison contracts: goods and services. | Defeated in State Assembly | Thurmond | Imposes a 10 percent tax on vendors who contract out specifically with private prisons |
| Support | AB 2376 | Civil actions: provisional remedies: injunctions. | Signed by Governor Brown | Stone | Clarifies what kind of taxes are appropriate in order for a taxpayer to gain legal standing to sue a municipality for alleged waste, fraud, and abuse. This bill will make it easier for taxpayers to receive their day in court. |
| Oppose | AB 2486 | Opioid Prevention and Rehabilitation Act. | Defeated in State Assembly | McCarty | Places a $100 million dollar tax on opioid distributors in order to fund opioid abuse and treatment programs. Inevitably, these costs will be passed on to consumers, including those who use opioids in an appropriate and legal manner. Ideally, these treatment programs should be funded from the General Fund, as opioid abuse is becoming a matter of statewide concern. |
| Oppose | AB 2497 | Firearms: school gun violence prevention. | Defeated in State Assembly | Cooper | Imposes an undefined tax on guns and ammunition in order to fund school counselors and resource police officers. |
| Oppose | AB 2529 | Income taxation: like kind exchanges: withholding. | Defeated in State Assembly | Chu | Imposes immeadiate 3-1/3 percent withholding on real estate sales that occur outside CA |
| Support | AB 2530 | Bonds:transportation | Defeated in State Assembly | Melendez | Diverts any unsold high speed rail bonds to instead fund school transportation vehices |
| Oppose | AB 2553 | Vertical housing districts. | Defeated in State Assembly | Friedman | Creates a new form of redevelopment, Verticle Housing Districts, that uses tax increment financing, without voter approval, to fund new housing developments |
| Oppose | AB 2560 | Taxation: prison contracts: goods and services. | Defeated in State Assembly | Thurmond | Imposes a maximum ten percent tax on vendors that contract out with state prisons through CDCR. The tax would be levied on a sliding scale |
| Oppose | AB 2771 | Education finance: Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of 2018. | Defeated in State Senate | Eggman | Places a $7 billion General Obligation bond to fund Higher Education facilities on the November 2018 ballot |
| Support | AB 2881 | Recall Elections | Defeated in State Assembly | Harper | Repeals legislation from last year that placed needless hindrances and delays in the California recall process |
| Support | AB 2882 | Campaign contributions | Defeated in State Assembly | Harper | Repeals a campaign finance law (AB 249) from 2017 that HJTA opposed. Among other free-speech chilling provisions, AB 249 places a black box around your TV screen for all political advertisements |
| Support | AB 2883 | Vote by mail ballots | Defeated in State Assembly | Harper | Repeals a law allowing for individuals to return a potentially unlimited amount of absentee ballots, increasing the risk of ballot harvesting |
| Oppose | AB 2908 | Tire recycling: California tire regulatory fee and waste tire program. | Vetoed by Governor Brown | Berman | Imposes a $1 regulatory fee on the sale of new vehicle tires |
| Oppose | AB 2920 | Transactions and use taxes: City of Berkeley. | Signed by Governor Brown | Thurmond | Allows the City of Berkeley to impose, with voter approval, a half cent sales tax increase beyond the maximum local tax rate of two percent |
| Support | AB 2954 | School districts: special taxes: uniformity requirement: unimproved property. | Signed by Governor Brown | Bonta | Creates an exemption for the uniformity provision regarding education parcel taxes by allowing unimproved property to be taxed at a lower rate. |
| Support | AB 3004 | Revocable transfer on death deeds. | Defeated in State Assembly | Kiley | Reforms the Transfer Upon Death deed program (See AB 1739) to make it easier to implement |
| Oppose | AB 3037 | Community Redevelopment Law of 2018. | Defeated in State Assembly | Chiu | Massive expands all forms of redevelopment using tax increment financing without a vote of the people. |
| Support | ACR 247 | 40th anniversary of Proposition 13. | Defeated in State Assembly | Acosta | Constitutional resolution celebrating the 40th anniversary of Proposition 13. |
| Oppose | ACA 2 | Sales and use taxes: food products. | Defeated in State Assembly | Cristina Garcia | Repeals the 25 year old voter approved initiative to repeal the "snack tax." The result will be a billion dollar tax increase on items ranging from cookies, to granola bars, to bottled water. |
| Oppose | ACA 4 | Local government financing: affordable housing and public infrastructure: voter approval. | Defeated in State Assembly | Aguiar-Curry | Lowers the two-thirds vote requirement for both bonds and special taxes--a direct attack on Proposition 13--to 55 percent in order to fund affordable housing programs |
| Support | ACA 6 | School facilities: bonded indebtedness: vote requirement. | Defeated in State Assembly | Harper | Repeals the provisions of Proposition 39 (2002) that allowed for the threshold for local school bonds to drop from two-thirds to 55%. HJTA is in favor of retaining the supermajority threshold for all long-term debt |
| Support | ACA 7 | Property taxation: intercounty base year value transfers. | Defeated in State Assembly | Bocanegra | See Assembly Bill 1322. |
| Oppose | ACA 11 | California Middle Class Affordable Housing and Homeless Shelter: funding. | Defeated in State Assembly | Caballero | Increases the California state sales tax, the highest in the nation, by a quarter cent in order to fund affordable housing programs and homeless shelters. |
| Support | ACA 12 | Property taxation: base year value transfers: persons with a severely disabled child. | Defeated in State Senate | Gloria | Extends a property tax base-year value transfer commonly just avaliable for seniors to now include any family with a disabled child who resides in the home. |
| Oppose | ACA 13 | Public education: Higher Education Assistance Fund: appropriations limit: minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts. | Defeated in State Assembly | Eggman | Imposes an additional one percent income tax increase for those making over a million dollars a year in order to provide universal higher education. |
| Support | ACA 24 | Property taxation: transfer of base year value: disaster relief. | Assembly Rules | Waldron | Allows for an individual who had their primary residence severely damaged or destroyed in a natural disaster between January 1, 2017 and June 30th 2018 to be able to transfer the pre-disaster base-year value of their property to a home in any county. |
| Oppose | SB 152 | Transactions and use taxes: County of Sonoma. | Signed by Governor Brown | McGuire | Authorizes the County of Sonoma to impose up to a one percent sales tax, would exceed the current cap of two percent. |
| Support | SB 348 | County voter information guide: taxpayer notice. | Defeated in State Senate | Leyva | Under current law, taxpayers or other interested parties have 60 days following an election to file a legal challenge against the validity of a special tax. SB 348 requires a notice be placed in the county voter pamphlet for every special tax stating that most legal challenges must be made within 60 days or the validity of the tax cannot be challenged. |
| Oppose | SB 562 | The Healthy California Act. | Defeated in State Assembly | Lara | Establishes a single-payer universal health care system |
| Oppose | SB 794 | Fireworks: fireworks stewardship program. | Defeated In State Assembly | Stern | Imposes a three percent point of sale tax on the sale of fireworks to fund illegal firework prevention efforts. These efforts should be funded out of the General Fund, and a tax on fireworks could hurt nonprofits, many of whom make sizable revenues through the sale of fireworks. |
| Oppose | SB 845 | Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund | Defeated in Legislature | Cmte. on Budget | Imposes a voluntary opt-out $1/month water tax on all California property owners to pay for clean water service |
| Oppose | SB 870 | Disaster Response Emergency Operations Account: allocation of funds: notification: Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act. | Defeated in State Senate | Cmte. on Budget | Imposes up to an 80 cents/month tax on cell phone users in order to fund a new 911 system |
| Oppose | SB 958 | Davis Joint Unified School District: special taxes: exemptions: teachers and district employees. | Signed by Governor Brown | Dodd | Exempts Davis Unified School District teachers and support staff from paying school district parcel taxes. |
| Oppose | SB 993 | Sales and use taxes: service tax: qualified business. | Defeated in State Senate | Hertzberg | Imposes a sales tax on a variety of previously untaxed business services |
| Support | SB 995 | Personal income taxes: standard deduction: annual increase. | Defeated in State Senate | Gaines | Increases the standard deduction to $3000 |
| Oppose | SB 998 | Discontinuation of residential water service: urban and community water systems. | Signed by Governor Brown | Dodd | Violates the proportionality provisions of Proposition 218 by potentially allowing individuals to receive free water service for up to four months. |
| Support | SB 1044 | State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fees. | Defeated in State Senate | Berryhill | Repeals the fire tax and allows for those financially impacted to receive refunds |
| Support | SB 1074 | Motor vehicle fuel: disclosure of government-imposed costs. | Defeated in State Senate | Moorlach | Expands transparancy at the fuel pump via the creation of a QR barcode that individuals can scan to understand the full price of fuel that they pay for at the pump. |
| Support | SB 1091 | Property taxation: transfer of base year value: disaster relief. | Defeated in State Senate | Stone | Allows for an individual who had their primary residence severely damaged or destroyed in a natural disaster between January 1, 2017 and June 30th 2018 to be able to transfer the pre-disaster base-year value of their property to a home in any county. |
| Oppose | SB 1145 | Enhanced infrastructure financing districts: maintenance. | Signed by Governor Brown | Leyva | Expands the types of projects that an Enhanced Infrastructure Finance District (EIFD) can fund through the sale of bonds to include ongoing costs to maintain public capital facilities. HJTA has long believed that maintenance costs should not be funded with bond dollars |
| Support | SB 1149 | Public employees' retirement: defined contribution program. | Defeated in State Senate | Glazer | Creates an optional 401k defined contribution program for new state employees |
| Support | SB 1167 | Eminent domain: final offer of compensation. | Defeated in State Senate | Anderson | Requires the payment of attorney fees where the price offered is less than 85 percent of the ultimate award, and gives the court discretion to award litigation expenses when the offer is at least 85%. |
| Support | SB 1210 | Personal income taxes: tax rates. | Defeated in State Senate | Anderson | Lowers state income tax rates from 9.3 to 8.8% |
| Support | SB 1237 | Property taxation: change in ownership. | Defeated in State Senate | Bates | Alters the definition of "change of ownership" for purposes of property taxation in order to ensure that individuals and businesses cannot evade legitimate tax reassessments |
| Oppose | SB 1394 | Petitions: compensation for signatures. | Defeated in State Senate | Newman | Stipulates that paid signature gathering would be a misdemeanor and signatures would have to be gathered on an hourly rate |
| Oppose | SCA 3 | Local government financing: public libraries: voter approval. | Defeated in State Senate | Dodd | Lowers the current Constitutional vote requirement for local bonds to fund library projects from two-thirds to 55% and thus erodes the taxpayer protections found in Proposition 13 |
| Oppose | SCA 6 | Local transportation measures: special taxes: voter approval. | Defeated in State Senate | Wiener | In a direct attempt to erode Proposition 13, lowers the current constitutional vote requirement for special taxes (including sales and parcel taxes) to fund local transportation projects from two-thirds to 55 percent. |
| Oppose | SCA 22 | Taxation: School districts: parcel tax. | Defeated in State Senate | Allen | Lowers the threshold for local education parcel taxes from two-thirds to 55 percent, an eviseration of Proposition 13's constitutional requirement for lower taxes. |
| Support | SR 113 | Relative to the 40th anniversary of Proposition 13. | Defeated in State Senate | Gaines | Commemorates via resolution the 40th anniversary of Proposition 13 |