Sacramento --- At last night's Gubernatorial debate between Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman, Jerry Brown refused to defend Proposition 13.  Read more >>

After accusing her political rival Steve Poizner of undercutting Prop. 13 with support for a recent bond measure, GOP candidate Meg Whitman won the endorsement of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association. These twin events show the continued importance of Prop. 13 to the California governor’s race, writes columnist Cathleen Decker in The Los Angeles Times.

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This editorial on Sign On San Diego discusses how new state candidates will undoubtedly target Prop. 13 in their 2010 initiatives. However, as the author points out, these accusations still receive little support from voters who are already overburdened with taxes. Proponents of Prop. 13 will be hard pressed to find good reasons to remove the proposition or the tho-thirds compromise.

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As this blurb in the Sign On San Diego News reports, critics of Proposition 13 frequently make the claim that the voters no longer support the proposition and the two-thirds requirement. However, polls once again have proved this claim to be utterly false. In fact, only a small percentage of voters wish to see legislative change in these areas.

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HJTA president Jon Coupal wrote an article in the Sacramento Bee, explaining how Proposition 13 was not the start of California's plunge into debt. In fact, it is what has helped to stabilize the state's income, while property value dropped and the state's spending flailed out of control.

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This article from the Wall Street Journal replies to the accusations that voters are somehow to blame for California's billions of dollars in debt. Legislators blame voters even though only a portion of government spending programs were locked in place by voter initiatives. Instead, the government's ever increasing spending habits on things like the labor unions (which constitute a third of the budget) are very clearly the cause of California's mountain of debt.  Read more >>

“He’s Baaaaaack…”

Charles Young’s lawsuit to overturn Prop. 13 is re-filed in Superior Court

Sacramento -- After the California Supreme Court refused to hear a case claiming that Proposition 13 is unconstitutional, plaintiff Charles Young has now re-filed his case in Superior Court.

The case challenges the provision of California’s Prop. 13 which requires a two-thirds vote by the Legislature to raise taxes or enact a budget. Prior to Prop. 13, the Legislature could enact a tax increase by a simple majority vote.  Read more >>

Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Issues Statement on Release of Tax Commission Report

Sacramento – In response to the release of the California Tax Commission report, Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, released the following statement today:  Read more >>

In this article, Charles Crumpley of the Los Angeles Business Journal describes how Proposition 13 has actually had the side effect of stabilizing California state income, despite plummeting property values. He concludes that critics of Prop. 13 should really be thanking it.

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The Supreme Court promptly dismissed the most recent lawsuit to overturn the two-thirds vote requirement, which claimed that the requirement was "unconstitutional." The court invoked its previous decision on the matter, in which it declared the requirement to be perfectly in line with constitutional law.

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