Aug 2000

In the wars fought against tax increases, changes to laws affecting the way taxes are collected, and changes to safeguards that prevent certain types of taxes to be imposed, alliances of taxpayer organizations are vital. There is one organization that was unheralded in the defeat of Proposition 26 last March. Let me offer a reprint of an article from "Dollars & Sense", a publication of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.

"CALIFORNIA Voters may have decided the fate of several Presidential candidates in the March 'Super Tuesday' election, but they also stood behind one of the cornerstones of the modern tax revolt. Citizens here turned down Proposition 26, a ballot proposal that would have effectively voided key voter consent provisions for local tax increases contained in state law.

California law has long stipulated that before a local bond (automatically funded by a property tax hike) can be issued, it must receive the approval of 2/3 of the voters in the affected jurisdiction. The 120 year-old provision was designed to prevent local governments from fooling voters into thinking the debt issues were cost-free, as well as to protect the rights of property owners whose taxes would rise if the bonds were issued. This law, combined with Proposition 13 and Proposition 218 that passed in 1978 and 1996 respectively, forms a solid tax accountability mechanism that has recently brought the growth of government in California closer to its residents' ability to pay for it.

Proposition 26 would have gutted the 2/3 requirement, opening the flood gates to mountains of new debt financed by property tax hikes. The measure would have also created a loophole that neither of the two more recent tax limits, Proposition 13 and Proposition 218, could easily plug.

NTU President John Berthoud noted that Proposition 26 backers outspent pro-tax-payer forces by 16 to 1. 'If a margin that huge can't convince Californians to buy a lie, nothing will,' he observed. In addition to a strong anti-26 effort led by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, NTU mobilized its own 35,000 California members against the measure through a mail and talk radio campaign."

All Californian property owners owe a vote of thanks to the National Taxpayers Union for their unsolicited, but important support in defeating Proposition 26. I am sure they will rally to the call once again to help us defeat the "Son of Proposition 26", the nefarious Proposition 39 that will appear on the November 7th ballot.

For more information on Proposition 39, visit web site www.saveourhomes.com.

Joe Sullivan

Editor Jan O'Brien