California now has a death tax on property, and many Californians are just finding out about it. Previously, a primary residence and up to $1 million of assessed value of other property could be transferred from parent to child without reassessment, so the property tax bill stayed the same. No more. Effective on February 16,…
Whether you’re looking at historic election results or recent polling, it’s clear beyond any doubt that Californians hate death taxes. Back in 1982, voters overwhelmingly approved two ballot measures to abolish state inheritance and gift taxes—not only abolish them, but ban them permanently. A few years later, rising property values had created a new kind…
There’s a particularly creepy scene in the children’s classic, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” where a diabolical villain lures two kids from their hiding place by walking down the street calling out, “Ice cream. Get some ice cream! Today, it’s all free!” The children can’t resist and they emerge from a building to get into a…
When Proposition 19 eked out a narrow victory in the November election, most California voters knew the measure had something to do with protecting wildfire victims, seniors and the disabled from higher property taxes. What most California voters didn’t know is that Prop. 19 took away an important taxpayer protection that had been part of…
The “Hundred Years War” was a series of conflicts for control over Western Europe and England during the middle ages, circa 1337 to 1453. The relentless hostilities against California taxpayers by progressive politicians may not have a 100-year history, but it sure feels like it. In March, far-left legislators and their ideological allies proposed another…
It’s hard to imagine anything more callous than the government sending a giant tax bill to a bereaved family, but thanks to Proposition 19, many California families will have that unfortunate experience. Prop. 19, which passed by a razor-thin margin in the November election, expanded a tax break for some homeowners but repealed an important…
In this time of New Year’s resolutions, here’s one for California: Stick to the basics. Unfortunately, our elected leadership believe that any problem needs a government solution. This mindset has caused California to lose focus away from important functions that are properly within the purview of government. Here’s a short list of matters that our…
[I have] previously described Prop. 19, which barely passed with 51 percent of the vote, as a steak laced with cyanide. It may look good, but you don’t want to eat it. While there are some benefits from expanding property tax “portability” to allow homeowners to transfer their Proposition 13 base-year value to anywhere in…
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association filed a writ of mandate directly to the California Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District seeking reversal of a trial court decision handed down on Tuesday that failed to correct false and misleading ballot material submitted by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to Proposition 15, the largest property…
In January, Gov. Gavin Newsom presented a proposed budget for fiscal year 2020-2021 which envisioned a several billion dollar increase in spending for existing programs as well as a host of new programs. But that was before COVID-19 arrived at our shores.