Update on the fight to Save Proposition 13

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This is the new Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association newsletter, Save Prop 13. We greatly appreciate your support of Proposition 13 and HJTA, and this newsletter will help us keep you up-to-date on important developments regarding California taxes, elections, legislation, court cases, ballot measures and our new initiative, the Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13. Have you signed the petition yet?

We invite you to forward this newsletter to friends and let them know that the Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13 will…

• Restore Proposition 13’s two-thirds vote requirement to pass local special taxes

• Restore Proposition 13’s ban on “real estate sales taxes” known as transfer taxes

• Repeal existing transfer taxes (above 0.11%) two years after the initiative is approved by voters

We need about 875,000 valid signatures of registered California voters by mid-February to get this measure on the November 2026 ballot, and that means we have to collect a million or more total signatures to be sure we have enough.

If you haven’t already signed the petition, you can download and print an official legal petition on your own printer, on one sheet of ordinary letter-size paper.

Here’s a link directly to the pdf file with the petition.

Or if you don’t have a printer, you can have the petition mailed to you. Just fill out the form here and HJTA will send it as soon as possible.

Please tell everyone you know that they can go to SaveProp13.com to get the petition and Save Proposition 13.

Read HJTA President Jon Coupal’s recent column about the Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13: “A Measure to Save Prop 13 and Protect Taxpayers.”

Upcoming: HJTA at the California Supreme Court

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is headed to the California Supreme Court on October 8 to argue that pension obligation bonds, like other bonds, require voter approval. Cities sometimes issue bonds to cover pension debt, and this can be a responsible or irresponsible way to manage fiscal affairs. Voters should have a say in whether their cities take on debt.

The oral arguments will be streamed live on the Supreme Court’s website. Here’s more information: https://supreme.courts.ca.gov/news-and-events/california-supreme-court-hold-oral-argument-outreach-session-monterey-county

Upcoming: Legislative Report Cards

The Winter issue of Taxing Times will include the Legislative Report Card, scoring every member of the State Assembly and Senate on their voting record for taxpayers. How did your representative do? Watch for the next issue of Taxing Times to find out.

Upcoming: November 4 special election

Watch the mail (the postal mail!) this week for your ballot for the November 4 statewide special election. California voters will be asked to decide if the independent Citizens’ Redistricting Commission’s work should be thrown out for the next three congressional elections, substituting maps drawn by politicians in Sacramento and Washington. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has taken a position in opposition to this measure, recommending a vote of “No on Proposition 50.” Here’s more information.

If you’re not already a member of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, join us! Here’s the link where you can sign up online. Your membership strengthens the voice of taxpayers in California and helps us protect Proposition 13, keeping property taxes under control. To see what you’d be paying in property taxes every year if Proposition 13 had never passed, check out our Guessing Game calculator at GuessingGame.org. Tell a friend!

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