RESTORE THE 2/3 VOTE PROTECTIONProposition 13 requires local taxes to go on the ballot for voter approval. Special taxes, for a dedicated purpose, require a 2/3 vote (66.67%) to pass. But in 2017, the California Supreme Court suggested that a tax increase might only need 50.01% to pass if it was put on the ballot by a citizens’ initiative.

The ambiguous language used by the court in this 2017 case, California Cannabis Coalition v. City of Upland, created a new loophole for tax increases of all kinds. Local governments that wanted to raise taxes simply had to work with special interest groups to collect signatures to put a tax increase on the ballot, and magically, the requirement for a two-thirds vote vanished.

Many of these tax increases were challenged with legal actions, but the appellate courts cited the Upland case and allowed them. The loophole grew wider with every decision.

Proposition 43 (The Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13) closes the loophole. Tax increases proposed by a citizens’ initiative will require the same vote threshold to pass as tax increases proposed by a City Council, County Board of Supervisors or any other government body.
SAVE PROPOSITION 13The “Upland loophole” allows any local special tax to evade the requirement for the approval of two-thirds of voters. But it doesn’t stop there. Any unconstitutional tax increase could get through the loophole if a court interpretation allows it.

Measure ULA in the city of Los Angeles is an unconstitutional real estate transfer tax for a special purpose, a type of tax that wouldn’t have been allowed even under previous court-created loopholes for transfer taxes. But the “Upland loophole” was applied by a lower court to let it go through.

This represents a very grave threat to taxpayers. If the plain language of the state constitution can be ignored and overwritten by a local initiative tax increase, no part of Proposition 13 is safe from being interpreted away through the “Upland loophole.”

The Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13 will secure the taxpayer protections that voters have placed in the state constitution over the last five decades.
ABOUT PROPOSITION 13Before Proposition 13, property taxes were based on the market value of a property, every year, and the statewide average tax rate was 2.67% of the market value of the property.

Imagine paying 2.67% of the current market value of your home or other property every year as a condition of keeping it.

Proposition 13 limited the annual increase in the assessed (taxable) value of property to 2% for as long as you own your property and capped the statewide property tax rate at 1%.

Only new construction or a change of ownership will trigger reassessment to market value, and then only for the value of the new construction (not the whole property) or for the percentage of the property affected by changing the title to add or remove an owner.

Proposition 13 added other taxpayer protections to the state constitution as well. Local taxes must go on the ballot for voter approval. State tax increases require a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature. Real estate taxes based on value (ad valorem) are prohibited, as are taxes on the sale or transfer of real estate except for a pre-existing documentary transfer tax of 0.11%.

Court-created loopholes have weakened the taxpayer protections that Proposition 13 placed in the state constitution. Vote YES on Propostion 43 to restore and strengthen taxpayer protections, preventing unconstitutional tax increases of the type that are costing Californians billions of dollars every year.
HELP THIS CAMPAIGN WINSupport Proposition 13 and this campaign by donating to the Protect Proposition 13 committee. Donations in any amount can be made online here. To donate by check, please use this form.

Thank you for helping to save Proposition 13. We greatly appreciate you.

Contact Us
Email us at info@hjta.org for general questions.
Representatives of the media
Please call Susan Shelley, Vice President, Communications, at 213-384-9656.

Northern California Office
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
1201 K Street, Suite 1030 
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-444-9950

Southern California Office
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
621 South Westmoreland Avenue, Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90005
Phone: 213-384-9656

Contributions to Protect Proposition 13 are not tax-deductible.

Ad paid for by Protect Prop. 13, a project of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Ad Committee’s Top Funders Californians to Restore Local Taxpayers’ Right to Vote on Taxes, sponsored by homeowners, businesses, and taxpayers and California Business Roundtable