Our report card is designed to help Californians gauge how their state representatives are actually performing on taxpayer-related issues, including, but not limited to, tax increases and direct attacks on Proposition 13.
As with last year, we only considered floor votes. This allows all legislators to vote on a bill at the same time and removes the potential risk of grade inflation. We also gave bills that have made it through both chambers greater consideration in our scoring. It is those bills, like ACA 11, now Proposition 19, a massive tax increase on inherited properties, that were most likely to hurt taxpayers, or in the case of good bills, to help taxpayers.
Abstention votes on legislation count as half credit.
Senators Patricia Bates, Melissa Melendez and Mike Morrell received a perfect 100 percent. Ten other legislators received A’s, including fellow Senators Shannon Grove and John Moorlach as well as Assembly Members Bill Brough, Phillip Chen, Steven Choi, Vince Fong, Kevin Kiley, Marie Waldron, Jim Patterson and Melissa Melendez. You may have noticed we mentioned Melendez twice. She received an A in the Assembly before winning a special election to represent the 28th State Senate District.
Seventeen other legislators were awarded B’s, including Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva, and three legislators were awarded C’s.
Eighty-four lawmakers flunked.
The 2020 scores stem from 16 bills. For more information about our methodology and scoring system, go to Legislative Report Card, or email Legislative Director Scott Kaufman at scott@hjta.org.
Click here to view our 2020 Legislative Report Card.
To find the names and contact information of your representatives, go online to
findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov or check the government pages of your local phone directory.
HJTA.org is your source for everything Proposition 13 and for information valuable to California taxpayers. For more information or to take action, go to HJTA.org/take-action.
Published by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA). Copyright © 2020 by Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. All rights reserved.
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