Supporters conceded defeat of a union-backed initiative that would have resulted in higher property taxes for commercial and industrial property to provide additional funding for local governments, schools and community colleges.
Many opponents of the original Proposition 13 have never given up. The same groups that fought the ballot measure more than four decades ago when 65 percent of the state’s electorate passed it have repeatedly tried to destroy the measure’s important property tax protections. When Prop. 13 was on the ballot in 1978 I opposed it, but the voters approved it. As chair of the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee, I had a responsibility for the legislative implementation of Prop. 13 to make it work. However, in the decades following Prop. 13’s implementation, I’ve come to recognize