By David Wolfe, Legislative Director of Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association – April 5, 2019 – Last week, we sent out an Action Alert asking all HJTA members to call lawmakers on the Assembly Local Government Committee and urge them to oppose Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1. This measure would make it easier to pass tax increases by cutting the vote needed to approve infrastructure bonds and taxes from the current two-thirds down to just 55 percent. 

ACA 1 is an attack on Proposition 13, which says any special tax must be approved by two-thirds of voters.

We’d like to update you on the outcome of the hearing in the Local Government Committee. The bill did pass out of committee by a vote of 5-2 along party lines. Democrats Richard Bloom, David Chiu, Luz Rivas, and Robert Rivas joined the author of ACA 1, Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, in voting “aye.” Republicans Tom Lackey and Randy Voepel voted no. An interesting abstention was James Ramos, a Democrat who represents a moderate district in San Bernardino.

However, in one very positive development, HJTA was joined in opposition to ACA 1 by a number of groups including the California Taxpayers Association (Cal-Tax) and the Family Business Association of California. 

There are currently 61 Democrats in the Assembly, and if seven of them oppose ACA 1 or abstain from voting, it will fail in a vote on the Assembly floor. It needs a two-thirds vote to pass in the Assembly and then a two-thirds vote in the state Senate in order to get on the ballot. If that happens, it would need only a majority vote to pass.

HJTA is committed to the fight to stop ACA 1 from becoming law. You can continue to help by clicking on this link and printing copies of our online petition to give to friends and neighbors: https://www.hjta.org/take-action/print-and-mail-petition/ 

You can also help by contacting your State Assembly Member to tell them how important it is to protect Proposition 13. You can find your representative’s name and contact information at this link: http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/ 

Thank you for your calls to the Assembly Local Government Committee, which the tax-raising lawmakers did not especially enjoy receiving. Great work, everybody. Together, we’ll keep fighting for California taxpayers.