On June 6, 1978 perhaps one of the most important political events in American history took place - the passing of Proposition 13. A citizen-initiated amendment to the California State constitution, Proposition 13 capped property tax rates and required public votes on other tax increases. The catalyst that sparked Prop.13 was an inflation induced housing price boom. With double-digit inflation pushing up prices, California homeowners were caught in a situation of living in a house worth much more than what they had paid for and because property taxes are based on the assessed value of a home, they too were skyrocketing.

Exercising their right to initiate and vote in referendums, concerned California taxpayers put forth an amendment to the state constitution to limit property taxes to one percent of assessed value of 1975. Valuations were frozen until the property was sold and to ensure that politicians didn't raise other taxes to make up for any short fall, a two-thirds majority in the legislature was required to raise taxes.

At the outset, California politicians all but ignored this initiative - it was only until polling showed Prop. 13 would pass when they began to take note. An aggressive campaign was launched to defeat the amendment - politicians were quoted in the media telling Californians that if taxes were to be cut it could mean the end of the world as they knew it. Fire and police services would be eroded, schools were going to fall apart because teachers were going to get laid off and the economy would go down the toilet.

Then California Governor Ed Brown said "if I were a communist, I would vote for Proposition 13." An even more priceless quote came from then Los Angeles Mayor Thomas Bradley "Proposition 13 will hit the city like a neutron bomb, leaving some city facilities standing virtually empty and human services devastated." But it wasn't just the politicians that were screaming bloody murder, the L.A. Chamber of Commerce and some economists at UCLA entered the debate with claims of economic devastation.

In spite of the extensive anti Prop. 13 campaign, citizens stayed true to their resolve and voted in favour of the measure by a two-to-one margin. As for the claims that the sky was going to fall if taxes were cut - they were wrong. Months after the vote, headlines read "Little impact Seen in Coast Tax Slash," another read "Dire Predictions on Proposition 13 Have Not Materialized." Social services were virtually unaffected, schools spent about as much money as they had the year before and fire and police services remained in tact.

The success of Proposition 13 as a tool for taxpayer protection has caused 23 states to introduce some sort of law to limit governments' ability to tax & spend. Here in Manitoba extending the scope of our Taxpayer Protection Act to school boards and municipalities is a way to ensure citizens have the right to protect the wealth they have worked so hard to produce.