June 26, 2026
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is pleased to announce that the Legislature has overwhelmingly approved the core of the Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13, the constitutional requirement that all local special taxes must have the approval of two-thirds of voters to pass.
In addition, the Legislature has reversed its vote from 2023 and removed a “poison pill” constitutional amendment, ACA 13, from the November ballot. ACA 13 would have required the Local Taxpayer Protection Act to meet an unusually high vote threshold to pass, potentially making it far more difficult to enact taxpayer protections through the initiative process, permanently.
“It’s a tremendous turnaround. In 2024, the California Legislature sought to make it easier to raise taxes with Proposition 5, which the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association defeated at the ballot. Today the Legislature voted to make it harder to raise taxes by advancing a constitutional amendment, ACA 22, to close a loophole that had allowed some special taxes to pass with less than the two-thirds vote required by Proposition 13,” said HJTA President Jon Coupal.
With the Legislature’s strong endorsement of the two-thirds vote requirement to pass all special taxes, and the removal of “poison pill” ACA 13 from the November ballot, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has agreed to withdraw its original initiative from the ballot. Instead, voters will have the opportunity to pass the Local Taxpayer Protection Act as ACA 22, soon to have a proposition number for November.
The new Local Taxpayer Protection Act is exclusively focused on restoring the two-thirds vote requirement in Proposition 13, after courts have eroded its protections. HJTA anticipates that it will pass overwhelmingly with a large coalition of supporters.
HJTA looks forward to an energetic and successful campaign to pass the Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13, now ACA 22.
