CHECK YOUR BALLOT CLOSELY FOR “UPLAND” TAXES. HERE’S WHY.

The California Supreme Court has made it easier to raise your taxes.

That’s not the court’s role according to the state constitution, but it’s happening. Taxpayers should be on high alert for ballot measures that use the court-created “Upland” loophole to hike certain taxes with less than the two-thirds majority that is required by Proposition 13.

“Upland” is shorthand for a 2017 California Supreme Court decision that suggested, without really deciding, that the state constitution’s requirement of a two-thirds vote of the electorate to pass special-purpose taxes did not apply if the tax was proposed by a “citizens’ initiative.”

Who, you may wonder, are these “citizens” who are so anxious to raise their own taxes that they stand in front of supermarkets in the heat to collect signatures on petitions?

Consider the newest “Upland” tax proposal in Los Angeles County. It’s a citizens’ initiative that would increase annual property taxes by $60 per 1,000 square feet of a home, business or other structure located in the L.A. County Fire Protection District. Every year, the tax would adjust upward for inflation. The money would be directed to the L.A. County Fire Department for hiring and equipment.

The citizens promoting this initiative happen to be the L.A. County firefighters’ union.

This new parcel tax would raise approximately $150 million per year. You might think the L.A. County Board of Supervisors should prioritize hiring and equipment for the fire department, and cut something else in the county’s $46.7 billion budget. But why should they, when the firefighters’ union can crawl through the “Upland” loophole to the ballot?

And here’s the scam: even though this tax increase is proposed by government employees for government services, as a “citizens’ initiative” under the state Supreme Court’s fabricated “Upland” standard, the tax increase will need only 50%-plus-one-vote to pass, instead of two-thirds.

In March 2020, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors put a similar parcel tax proposal on the ballot. It needed a two-thirds vote, 66.67%, because it was proposed by “the government.” Measure FD won the approval of only 52.59% of voters, with 47.41% voting no. It failed.

If the supervisors had put the same proposal on a clipboard and headed to the supermarket to collect signatures to put it on the ballot, it would have slipped through the “Upland” loophole without any problem. In fact, that happened in San Francisco in 2018. Two of the county supervisors ran an initiative campaign for a tax on commercial property leases to pay for childcare and early education programs. It received the barest majority vote, and the supervisors declared it passed because it was a “citizens’ initiative.”

This was challenged in court, but the state Court of Appeals said it was fine.

Even though the state constitution says tax increases of this kind need a two-thirds vote, the state Supreme Court has so far refused to review any of the appellate courts’ rulings in the San Francisco case and similar cases around the state.

Now any labor union, government contractor or other organization seeking your tax dollars can write its own tax increase, direct all the revenue to its own benefit, pay for signature collection to get it on the ballot, buy enough advertising to win a bare majority vote and start collecting your money.

In June, the L.A. County firefighters’ union turned in the signatures to qualify its measure for the November election. Their tax hike proposal will join another “Upland” tax increase on the L.A. County ballot, a “citizens’ initiative” that doubles and makes permanent the county’s “temporary” Measure H sales tax for homelessness programs.

Both would pass with 50%-plus-one-vote instead of the 66.67% the constitution requires.

When you receive your ballot in the mail in early October, check it very carefully for measures that “citizens” have placed on it to raise your taxes for their preferred priority. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association recommends a “no” vote on all “Upland” tax increase measures. Send a message that this loophole must be closed.