Professor Sarah Anzia at UC Berkeley recently published a report analyzing the effects of high pension costs in California. In a policy brief published in conjunction with the report, she finds that raising pension costs are related to the loss of many local government jobs. This harms not only the public with lower staffed agencies, but also unions as the government cuts more jobs. Unless California can control its pension costs, which rose six times higher than the national average local government pension, we will be looking at a future with more government inefficiency.
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Jon Coupal
Jon Coupal is the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA). HJTA, with offices in both Los Angeles and Sacramento, is the largest taxpayers association in California with a membership of over 200,000. Founded by the late Howard Jarvis, the author of Proposition 13, HJTA’s name is synonymous with tax relief and the uncompromising defense of the California homeowner.
From 1991 to 1998, Coupal served as Director of Legal Affairs for HJTA, overseeing the organization’s litigation and lobbying efforts. He is a recognized expert in California fiscal affairs and has argued numerous tax cases before the courts. Coupal also successfully defended Proposition 140, the state's term limit initiative, before the California Supreme Court. In 1995, he won a major ruling before the Supreme Court when it upheld the validity of Proposition 62, an HJTA sponsored initiative guaranteeing the right to vote on local taxes. He is also the principal drafter of Proposition 218, the Right to Vote on Taxes Act, a measure passed by the voters in November 1996. He has served as chairman of several initiative campaigns representing the interests of taxpayers including his most recent battle against Proposition 88, the statewide parcel tax initiative, defeated by the voters in November of 2006. Coupal is also Chairman of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Foundation which provides funding for taxpayer rights litigation and educational studies.
Coupal is a graduate of the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary, where he received his J.D. degree in 1982. After law school, he was an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation for nine years, specializing in tax issues and political law. He resides in Sacramento, California with his wife Catherine, daughter Elena and son Adam.
View more of Jon's writing in California Commentary.