We at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association are grateful for your support of the Repeal the Death Tax initiative effort. For months, we have been working hard to see if it’s possible to try for a third time to collect the signatures needed to get this important measure on the brepealallot to reverse the provisions in Proposition 19 (2020) which have triggered reassessment of property passed from parents to children.
Prop. 19 was the biggest property tax increase in California history. But it may not hold that title for long.
The tax-raisers in Sacramento and their friends in the California courts have been attacking Proposition 13 in every way possible. We have been particularly troubled by court rulings that have carved a loophole in Proposition 13 that effectively wiped out the protection of the two-thirds vote requirement to raise local special taxes.
We tried to close this loophole with one provision of the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, an initiative signed by 1.4 million California voters which had qualified for the November 2024 ballot. To our astonishment, the governor and legislative leaders sued to have our initiative removed from the ballot before Californians could vote on it, and the California Supreme Court went along with them, saying the measure did too much to protect taxpayers.
We cannot let this stand.
That’s why we have filed a new initiative called the Save Proposition 13 Act of 2026. It will close the “Upland” loophole (named after the 2017 court case that created it), which has allowed unconstitutional tax increases to take effect if they were proposed by a citizens’ initiative instead of by a city council or other government body.
The “Upland” loophole has become a weapon of special interests to raise taxes.
We’re excited to tell you that the Save Proposition 13 Act will end unconstitutional taxes on property that made it through the loophole, including Measure ULA in the City of Los Angeles.
We’re hopeful that this will be a well-funded effort, which will allow the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to strengthen its ability to qualify measures for the ballot using the one-page, download-and-print petition format that we created for the second try at Repeal the Death Tax.
We know how important Repeal the Death Tax is to you and to all of us, but it is essential that we save Proposition 13 first. If we lose that, property will be reassessed to market value every year, and fixing Prop. 19 will be of no help.
We’re confident that support will build for Repeal the Death Tax as time goes on, and by 2028 we will be in a much stronger position to take on that challenge again. But first, in 2026, we must save Proposition 13. We must also be ready to go on defense. In November 2024, voters considered 539 local tax and bond measures. We don’t yet know what will be on the ballot in 2026, but with the state’s budget crunch, local governments all over the state will be asking taxpayers for more money at the ballot box. Voters in the Bay Area and San Diego may be asked to pay higher sales taxes to fund public transit. We have no doubt more tax proposals will be on the ballot next year. And we are already hearing rumblings that special interests may be gearing up for another try at “split roll,” a direct attack on Prop. 13 that removes taxpayer protections from some property owners in preparation for removing Prop. 13 from everybody.
We are ready to fight to protect Proposition 13, and we hope you’re ready to join us in this battle.
If you can, please support HJTA’s important efforts with a contribution to the Protect Proposition 13 campaign committee. Online donations can be made here: https://www.efundraisingconnections.com/c/Prop13
Or if you prefer, a check payable to “Protect Prop. 13” may be mailed to: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, 621 S. Westmoreland Ave., Suite 200, L.A., CA 90005
We encourage your continued support for Repeal the Death Tax. Please help us spread the word to sign up for updates at Repeal the Death Tax.com. We need hundreds of thousands of Californians to sign up in order to make it possible to qualify the initiative for the ballot. (Currently we have tens of thousands.)
Thank you! We greatly appreciate you and all that you have done. Together we will restore the constitutional taxpayer protections that should never have been lost, fight against specific local tax increases up and down the state, and protect Proposition 13.
Gratefully,
