Letters: Californians are taxed enough already

Re “Closer to majority rule,” Column, July 4

George Skelton’s advocacy for making it easier to pass bonds and higher taxes is troubling, given how overtaxed Californians already are.

California has the highest income tax rate, the highest state sales tax rate and, as of July 1, the highest gasoline tax in the nation. Even with Proposition 13’s protections, property taxes in California are the 15th highest per capita in the nation.

Skelton believes that “majority rule” is what July 4 is all about. He’s wrong. Independence Day is about opposing tyranny, and that’s one of the reasons our founders placed a two-thirds vote requirement in nearly a dozen places in the Constitution.

The justification for the two-thirds vote requirement for local bonds is that, unlike state bonds, local bonds are repaid only by property owners. The two-thirds vote threshold has proved to be only a modest barrier to higher bond debt; it has not prevented it. In fact, voters approved 64% of local school tax and bond measures on the November 2012 ballot that required two-thirds support.

Voters retain the ability to pass higher property taxes, but their effects are so devastating that they should require greater consensus than that permitted by a simple majority.

Jon Coupal

Sacramento

The writer is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation.

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