Santa Clara County was (and is) Prop 13 country—despite politicians' opposition
SJ City Council has a bizarre habit of taking positions on statewide issues that run wildly contrary to what local citizens really want. In 2020, the Council voted unanimously to support expanding affirmative action in education with Prop 16—and local voters rejected 16 by a wide margin. In 1978, the Council voted to oppose Prop 13—and Prop 13 passed locally by a 2–1 margin. This year, history repeated itself as the Council voted to undermine Prop 13 by supporting ACA 1 and 10, and opposing the TPA initiative—even as polls show Prop 13 remains wildly popular. Tobin Gilman surveys the unrepresentative disconnects on Medium.
In the winter and spring of 1978, then-Mayor Janet Gray Hayes joined the San Jose Mercury, the Chamber of Commerce, and a chorus of shrieking politicians across the city and county warning of fatal consequences if Prop 13 were to pass. Police and fire departments would be cut to the bone. Schools and hospitals would close. Local governments would collapse.
And then on June 6th of that year, the voters got their turn to speak. And speak they did. In Santa Clara County, Prop 13 passed by a nearly two to one margin.
Looking back 45 years later, the verdict is clear. The politicians were wrong and the voters got it right. Local governments didn’t collapse. In fact in San Jose, despite Prop 13, city government keeps getting bigger and more bloated. In just the past ten years, the City Manager’s staff alone has grown 38%.
The taxpayer revolt of 1978 provides a highly relevant lesson for San Jose voters today.
In February of this year, the council passed a resolution to join major unions throughout the state in opposing the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act (TPA). The TPA is citizens' initiative that has qualified for the statewide November ballot. It restores and bolsters Prop 13 protections.
In August of this year, the council unanimously approved the use of city staff and funding for professional lobbyists to secure passage of ACA 1. The legislature dutifully obliged and passed the bill last week. The legislation places a measure on the statewide ballot that would lower the Prop 13 threshold for tax increases and new taxes from a super majority to 55%. A companion bill, ACA 13, was also passed by the legislature last week. ACA 13 places a measure on the March statewide ballot designed specifically to thwart voter approval of the TPA in November.
This article originally appeared in Medium. Read the whole thing here.
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