By Susan Shelley, Vice President of Communications, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Most California voters know that we have the right to vote on local taxes. But you may not know that California voters also have the right to repeal local taxes through the initiative process.
Both the right to vote on taxes and the right to get rid of them come to us from Proposition 218, which was put on the ballot by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and approved by voters in 1996.
Under Prop. 218, now a part of the California Constitution, new local taxes or tax increases must go on the ballot for voter approval. Taxes for a general purpose pass with a simple majority vote. Taxes for a special purpose – earmarked specifically for schools or transportation or fire protection, for example – generally require a two-thirds vote. (Actually, they always require a two-thirds vote, but an ambiguous state Supreme Court decision recently created an apparent loophole for special taxes proposed by an initiative instead of a government body. HJTA is currently fighting in the courts to restore the taxpayers’ rights.)
Regardless of how these taxes are passed, voters have the right to repeal or reduce them with the initiative process. Once the initiative is prepared (prepare to pay a lawyer for this step), the filing process goes through the city clerk or county clerk, the title and summary are written, and then the petitions are ready to go out for signatures.
Here’s the great part: The signature requirement is only 5% of the total number of votes cast in the race for governor in the last election in that jurisdiction.
So if you live in a city with a population of 2,000,000, but only 200,000 people in your city cast votes for governor in the last election, it would take only 10,000 valid signatures (5% of 200,000) to get an initiative on the ballot to repeal or reduce a city tax.
You can find the relevant vote totals in the official “Statement of Votes Cast” on the website of the county elections official (for the city-by-city breakdown) or the website of the California Secretary of State (for the county totals). Here’s the link to the Secretary of State’s November 2018 “Statement of Vote” files in pdf and csv formats: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/prior-elections/statewide-election-results/general-election-november-6-2018/statement-vote/
Here’s a link to the elections offices of all 58 California counties: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voting-resources/county-elections-offices/
Some local taxes have a sunset date on which they automatically end. Others have no end date, and the ballot measure will have a sentence in it somewhere describing how much the tax will cost “until ended by the voters.”
Now you know how it’s done.
For more great information, be sure to listen to the new Howard Jarvis podcast, available on KABC.com, and visit HJTA.org. HJTA is a member-supported organization that fights for the interests of taxpayers. If you’re not already a member, you’re cordially invited to become one!
