A coalition of business and antitax groups announced that it has submitted more than 1.3 million signatures to qualify the “Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13” for the November 2026 ballot. These groups include the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the California Business Roundtable, the California Taxpayers Association, and the California Business Properties Association.
The proposed constitutional amendment is intended to curtail local taxes by:
- Reinstating a two-thirds voter approval requirement for all local special taxes, including those placed on the ballot through the citizen initiative process. This is in response to court rulings that allowed citizen-initiated special taxes to pass with a simple majority following California Cannabis Coalition v. City of Upland.
- Restoring the traditional statewide cap on local real estate transfer taxes at $1.10 per $1,000 of property value and repealing local transfer taxes that exceed the cap within two years, including measures like Los Angeles’s Measure ULA. If passed as written, the amendment would also prohibit charter cities from adopting transfer taxes above that cap.
Supporters argue the measure would restore taxpayer safeguards and voter control over local taxation, while opponents contend it would constrain local government revenues and significantly reduce local tax receipts annually.
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