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At your request: This week's California Commentary by Jon Coupal
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** California Commentary
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** Mixed bag for taxpayers this year
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By Jon Coupal

This past weekend was the deadline for Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign or veto bills. Thankfully, many of the worst bills, like attempts to create a wealth tax and a perennial attempt to repeal one of the most important protections in Proposition 13 by lowering the existing two-thirds vote threshold for both local bonds and special taxes to 55 percent, failed to get out of the Legislature.

By the end of the session, only a handful of bills we opposed made it to the governor’s desk. Let’s review how taxpayers fared.

On the positive side, the governor signed Assembly Bill 398 which prevents the Department of Motor Vehicles from making a profit by selling personal information. By ensuring that the department cannot impose charges that exceed a service’s cost, AB 398 removed a dangerous opportunity for the department to trade valuable data to third party interests.

Senate Bill 219 authorizes the auditor or the tax collector to cancel any penalty, costs, or other charges associated with a missed property tax payment caused by the state shelter-in-place order if certain criteria are met. The Legislature has been particularly active in addressing the harm the COVID-19 lockdown had on renters, but the pandemic has also had a tremendous impact on homeowners as well. SB 219 provides important relief for homeowners.

On a similar note, Senate Bill 303 extended by two years the five-year time period under existing tax law in which to transfer a Prop. 13 base year value to a comparable property following a disaster.

Legislation which enhances government transparency and citizen participation also passed. SB 274 requires local agencies to make agendas and all the documents constituting the agenda packet available by email at the request of a member of the public. Previously, it was only required by mail.

We were also pleased to see the governor veto SB 660. All SB 660 would have done is drive up the cost of getting measures on the ballot. That favors wealthy and entrenched interests.

Now for the bad.

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Click here to listen to this week's Howard Jarvis Podcast, "What Have They Done!? A Legislative Wrap-Up" ([link removed]) The Howard Jarvis Podcast features HJTA President Jon Coupal and VP of Communications Susan Shelley with a lively conversation that takes you inside California government in a way that's fun, interesting and sometimes scary. Check out all the recent podcasts by clicking here: [link removed] -- it's easy to listen on your cell phone, tablet or computer. Just click the "play" arrow next to the title. Questions for Jon and Susan? Email us at [email protected] and tune in!
A note to our valued members and supporters: To increase the reach of our message to as many Californians as possible, HJTA made an agreement with the Southern California News Group papers to carry Jon Coupal's weekly column. The newspapers in the group, including the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Daily News, have added a paywall that allows only a limited number of page views per month, and then asks readers to become subscribers. HJTA is not marketing these subscriptions or receiving any payment from them. The columns are exclusive to SCNG's papers for one week and then are posted in full on HJTA's own website, www.hjta.org ([link removed]) , under "California Commentaries," where you can read them at your convenience, or read Jon's column online in all the SCNG papers at these links:
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Jon Coupal is the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA). He is a recognized expert in California fiscal affairs and has argued numerous tax cases before the courts.
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