Posts Tagged: 1978

Forty-two years later, the ghost of Prop. 13 haunts voters

An aerial view of a neighborhood in Fremont, California. (Photo: Sundry Photography, via Shutterstock)

by CHUCK McFADDEN posted 10.08.2020

Once again, Californians are being asked to decide on the merits of a ballot measure that roiled the political scene when many of them were in grammar  school — or not even born yet. The ballot measure under challenge is Proposition 13, a constitutional amendment written by anti-tax crusader Howard Jarvis and approved nearly 2-to-1 by voters in 1978.

For California schools, 2020 could prove historic

Two students at a crossing in the Mission Beach area of San Diego. (Photo: Conchi Martinez, via Shutterstock)

by LISA RENNER posted 10.09.2019

California public schools will be getting a big infusion of cash — a very, very big infusion —  if voters approve an unprecedented trifecta of  multibillion-dollar measures aimed at next year’s statewide ballots. First, there’s a $15 billion plan, financed by bond borrowing, for construction projects for K-12 and higher education. Gov. Newsom  signed the bill and placed it on the March ballot.

Next up, Proposition 13?

Gov, Jerry Brown, left, and Howard Jarvis, the architect of Proposition 13, at their first joint news conference in July 1978. Voters approved the initiative the month before. (Photo: Associated Press)

by LISA RENNER posted 11.12.2018

Once thought of as a sacred cow, Proposition 13, the tax revolt measure passed in 1978, is now under attack. Schools and Communities First, a coalition of nearly 300 groups and leaders, has qualified to put an initiative on the Nov. 2020 ballot that would lift caps on property taxes for commercial and industrial properties.

‘Split roll,’ the ghost of Prop. 13, haunts 2018

The late Paul Gann, center, and Howard Jarvis clasp their hands in victory as their ballot initiative, Proposition 13, takes a commanding lead on election night, June 7, 1978. (AP Photo)

by LISA RENNER posted 03.13.2018

Months after President Trump slashed corporations’ federal tax rate, a coalition of progressive California groups is hoping to raise their property taxes. The Schools and Communities First Coalition, which includes the League of Women Voters, Evolve California and other organizations, is seeking signatures to put an initiative on the ballot that would institute a “split roll” property tax system.

Where are they Now? Pat Nolan

Pat Nolan addresses a 2014 meeting of CPAC <(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

by ALEX VASSAR posted 11.30.2017

Pat Nolan has Southern California credentials that are about as solid as they come. The future Assembly Republican leader was born into a family that had been in the area for generations. One of his great-grandfathers had been an early settler of the area for whom two cities (Agoura and Agoura Hills) are named. Nolan also played a role in one of the Capitol’s darkest episodes – the FBI’s investigation of Capitol corruption, which included a dramatic nighttime raid on the building in the summer of 1988.

In November, questions of life and death

The execution chamber at San Quentin prison. (Photo: CDCR)

by ALEX MATTHEWS posted 07.01.2016

Will November mark the death of the death penalty? This fall, Californians will be asked yet again whether they would like to abolish capital punishment. Voters last faced the issue in 2012, a presidential election year, and rejected the idea.

In California, Election Day really is Election Month

U.S. Senate election, 2012

by SUMMER PARKERPERRY posted 01.04.2014

In little more than a decade, mail-in or “absentee” voting for statewide elections quadrupled, from 4.4 percent in 1978 to 18.4 percent in 1990, reflecting in part legal changes making it easier to vote absentee. Since the 1990s, mail-in ballots have increased exponentially. In the 2008 primary, 58 percent of the voters cast mail-in ballots, the first time in a California statewide election that mail-in ballots represented more than half the vote. In primaries since then, mail-in voting has risen steadily to a remarkable 65 percent in 2012. In the November 2012 general election, mail-in ballots accounted for about 51 percent. (Above: 2012 U.S. Senate election map/Kurykh, Wikimedia))