Released on April 22, 2026
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association’s “Save Proposition 13” initiative qualifies for November ballot
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber announced Tuesday evening that Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President Jon Coupal has turned in more than enough valid signatures to place Initiative 25-0006A1, the Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13, on the November 2026 ballot.
“Politicians and bureaucrats, in concert with a compliant judiciary, have engaged in a wholesale assault on Proposition 13,” Coupal said. “The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is leading the fight to reinstate the guardrails against excessive taxation upon which the taxpayers of California have relied for more than 40 years.”
Proposition 13, approved by voters in 1978, added Article XIII A, Section 4, to the state constitution. It requires a two-thirds vote of the local electorate to pass local “special” taxes, those that are earmarked for a specific purpose. Real estate transfer taxes are flatly prohibited.
However, court decisions in the 1990s opened the door for transfer taxes, and a state Supreme Court ruling in 2017 suggested that a special tax does not require a two-thirds vote if proposed by a “citizens’ initiative” instead of a government body. The decision led to special interest groups writing their own tax increases, directing the money to themselves, collecting signatures to place the measures on the ballot and then having them pass with a bare majority instead of a two-thirds vote.
The Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13 restores the requirement for a two-thirds vote to pass ALL local special taxes and bans real estate transfer taxes higher than 0.11%. The measure would also repeal existing transfer taxes above 0.11%, and any parcel taxes that passed with less than a two-thirds vote, two years after the initiative is approved by voters.
For More Information:
Jon Coupal, President, HJTA; 916-444-9950, jon@hjta.org
Susan Shelley, VP, Communications; 213-384-9656; susan@hjta.org
About the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is a member-supported nonprofit organization that fights for the interests of taxpayers and to secure the constitutional taxpayer protections voters have adopted through the initiative process, beginning with Proposition 13 in 1978. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation, a 501(c)(3), funds the organization’s legal and educational work. More information at hjta.org.