SACRAMENTO—The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association announced today that its Repeal the Death Tax initiative did not secure the needed signatures in time to qualify for the November ballot, but lauded the efforts of more than 13,000 volunteers who collected over 402,000 signatures to reverse the tax hike that was a little-known provision of 2020’s Proposition 19.
“This is a remarkable grassroots effort,” said HJTA president Jon Coupal, “it has been growing by leaps and bounds, but we just ran out of calendar before we got there.”
The Repeal the Death Tax Act would restore the ability of parents to pass their home and a limited amount of other property to their children without reassessment, keeping the tax bill the same. Reassessment to current market value can result in a tax increase so steep that children are forced to sell the property.
The measure needed 997,139 valid signatures of registered voters by May 3 to qualify for the 2022 ballot. The campaign collected more than 25% of the needed signatures, a threshold that triggers a required informational hearing in the Legislature.
“We have found that many people are still unaware of the nasty tax hike that is now imposed on families who have just lost a parent,” Coupal said. “As more and more Californians learned about the change to the law, our phones rang off the hook and our volunteer sign-ups increased exponentially.”
Coupal said the organization is studying all the data from the campaign and considering next steps.
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