By the time you read this, as many as 5 million ballots may already have been cast in California. For those who are just now reviewing your ballot material or who prefer to vote on Election Day – this is your last-minute reminder of why Proposition 5 presents the most serious threat to California homeowners in decades.
Frequent readers of this column are probably familiar with the arguments against Prop. 5 but let’s first recap those reasons and then look at some late-breaking developments in the campaign.
To review, Prop. 5 would lower the vote threshold for local bonds from two-thirds to 55%. The two-thirds vote requirement for local general obligation bonds has been in the California Constitution since 1879 as a protection for property owners against excessive debt being approved by those who don’t own property. That two-thirds vote threshold is consistent with the history of constitutional supermajority requirements found in the United States Constitution, virtually all other state constitutions and, of course, Proposition 13, itself part of California’s Constitution.
According to the state’s own Legislative Analyst, the passage of Prop. 5 will result in billions of dollars in future property tax increases. Even worse, Proposition 5 is retroactive, so the lower vote threshold applies to several bond measures appearing on the November ballot. Voters who mistakenly believe that the two-thirds vote for local bonds will apply to local bond measures this election are in for a rude awakening if Proposition 5 passes: taxes will go up with just 55% of the vote. Going forward to all future elections, Proposition 5 will allow virtually unlimited property taxes.
Leading the campaign against Prop. 5 is a dedicated campaign committee, “Protect Prop. 13, a Project of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, No on Prop. 5.” This is the only registered committee with the Secretary of State which has, at this writing, accepted campaign contributions for the specific purpose of opposing Prop. 5.
So where does the campaign stand? The good news is that, despite a deceptive ballot label that fails to disclose that the vote threshold for local bonds is being lowered, most voters aren’t fooled. The Howard Jarvis campaign committee has radio ads, lawn signs, billboards and of course, our leadership is covering the airwaves from Eureka to San Diego. In addition to our paid media, we have appeared on countless TV news programs and talk radio in our effort to educate voters as to the danger of this anti-taxpayer proposal.
These tireless efforts appear to be working as both public and private polls reveal that Prop. 5 is losing by a small margin. This is consistent with the fact that the more voters learn about Prop. 5 the less likely they are to support it.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the tax-and-spend advocates have just dropped millions of dollars to push Prop. 5 over the finish line. In fact, the total amount of late campaign contributions reported to the Yes on 5 campaign as of last Wednesday is over $12 million, of which Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have contributed nearly half. The Zuckerbergs are two of the wealthiest people on the planet, so property taxes are not that important to them. But the same cannot be said of ordinary taxpayers who struggle to hold on to their homes.
There is little doubt that this 11th hour infusion of cash will be used to advance false claims about all the good things that the higher taxes resulting from Prop. 5 will bring. But Californians, by a large margin, accurately perceive that we are not getting value for the taxes we already pay.
Despite the slightly favorable polling, this is no time to rest. It is critically important that all Californians who oppose higher taxes and excessive government debt do what they can to get the word out. The future of California depends on handing Prop. 5 the defeat it so richly deserves.
Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.