October 1, 2014

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA), founded by California Proposition 13 sponsor Howard Jarvis, has honored former El Segundo City Councilman Mike Robbins as a “Hometown Hero” for leading the successful campaign to defeat Measure A in the April 8, 2014 El Segundo General Municipal Election. Measure A had ELEVEN tax hikes in one ballot measure!

Here is the article in their official statewide newsletter, Taxing Times, Vol. 40, Issue 3 for Fall 2014:

HOMETOWN HEROES

HJTA was very pleased to receive the following update from former El Segundo councilman Mike Robbins after local Election Day, April 8. Here are excerpts:

We had a great victory in El Segundo last night! The citizens and taxpayers won, and the city-employee unions with lots of campaign money and a significant conflict of interest lost – AGAIN!

Thank you to everyone who helped.

El Segundo Measure A, ELEVEN TAX HIKES IN ONE MEASURE, taxing RESIDENTS and BUSINESSES, lost by 57% NO to 43% YES, despite the “Yes on A” campaign spending a whopping $33,129.87 in small-town El Segundo, including $17,500 from four city-employee unions – $5,000 from the fire union, $5,000 from the police union, $5,000 from the city employees’ union, and $2,500 from the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council in Sacramento (supervisory and professional employees’ union) at a cost of $25.74 per vote.

Measure A would have created new taxes on residents for electricity, water, gas, and all forms of “communications services,” including landline telephones, cell phones, Internet, cable TV, and satellite, to pay for excessive compensation and pensions for city employees. Firefighters and police are paid $150,000 to more than $380,000 each in total compensation per year.

I, together with two other former El Segundo City Council members, and two other long-term city residents, co-authored and submitted an argument against Measure A and a rebuttal to the argument for Measure A, and I authored and distributed two one-page double-sided campaign flyers on Saturday, April 5, and a third on Sunday, April 6.

The HJTA hat is off to Mike and other active El Segundo taxpayers who made this victory possible.

NOTE FROM MICHAEL D. ROBBINS:

I am pleased to be recognized and honored by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA), in its statewide newsletter, as a “Hometown Hero” for my leadership role in defeating ballot Measure A in the El Segundo, California General Municipal Election on April 8, 2014. Measure A was ELEVEN TAX HIKES IN ONE MEASURE, taxing RESIDENTS and BUSINESSES to pay for wildly excessive compensation and pensions for city employees.

The recognition was published in the Fall 2014 HJTA newsletter (Vol. 40, Issue 3), received by local HJTA members on October 1, 2014.

The government employee unions endorse, contribute money to, and campaign for the candidates and ballot measures that will give them the biggest pay raises and pension increases, no matter how unsustainable, and then raise taxes and fees on residents and businesses to try to pay for it all.

The fire and police unions are the most politically active, even though they have the biggest conflict of interest due to their positions of authority and public trust, and as emergency service providers. As a result of their dishonest campaign activities over many decades, El Segundo firefighters and police have total compensation of $150,000 to more than $380,000 each per year.

The government employee unions, especially the fire and police unions, are pushing California cities down the road to bankruptcy. For example, the City of Vallejo, California, filed for bankruptcy as a direct result of its fire and police unions.

Here’s my description of HJTA:

HJTA is a California nonprofit organization founded by Howard Jarvis who, together with Paul Gahn, sponsored, campaigned for, and won passage of the famous Proposition 13, California’s property tax limitation voter initiative. Proposition 13 limits property taxes to one percent of the property purchase price per year, plus a small annual increase. It requires a super-majority vote to approve additional local property tax assessments.

Proposition 13 saved California homeowners from being taxed out of their homes when property taxes were raised mercilessly above what they could afford. The property tax increases forced many homeowners to sell their homes to pay the property taxes, resulting in huge federal and state income taxes that consumed much of the sales price. However, much of the “profit” from the increase in home values was actually the result of government-created inflation, which significantly reduced the value of the dollar and artificially increased prices.

The homeowners’ pleas for help fell on deaf ears in the state legislature, which was dominated by tax-and-spend liberals. So Howard Jarvis and Paul Gahn took matters into their own hands. They bypassed the legislature and went straight to the voters by using California’s voter initiative process.

However, since the passage of Proposition 13, the Democrat majority in the state legislature, and the government employee unions, have been working to weaken and repeal Proposition 13, and to effectively repeal California’s voter initiative process by rendering it ineffective and useless.

HJTA continuously works to protect Proposition 13, and to enact additional taxpayer protections such as Proposition 218, which allows property owners and tenants to cast protest local government fee increases.

You can support the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association by visiting their website, www.HJTA.org.