Los Angeles, May 19—Last Monday the entire Letters section of the Los Angeles Times was turned over to a heated discussion of the merits and demerits of the Jarvis-Gann amendment, also known as Proposition 13. It is by common consent the nearest thing to a gut issue in a dozen years of California’s phlogistic politics. And it will pass or fail on June 6. This is a date for everyone in the Republic to put down on such calendars as take note of the evolution of the fitful history of liberalism, once defined by Woodrow Wilson as the history of man’s efforts to restrain the growth of government.
Jarvis-Gann, like so many California propositions, is complicated. Here however is the abbreviation as it will appear on the printed ballot of the State of California: “Proposition 13. Tax Limitation—Initiative Constitutional Amendment. Limits realty tax to I per cent; [permissible annual] increase [limited] to 2 per cent. Imposes 2/3 voting requirement on new taxes. Financial impact: Commencing with fiscal year beginning July 1, 1978, would result in annual losses of local government property tax revenues (approximately $7 billion in 1978-79 fiscal year), reduction in annual state costs (approximately $600 million in 1978-79 fiscal year), and restriction on future ability of local governments to finance capital construction by sale of general obligation bonds.” That wording of the Proposition is on the order of the recent national poll: “Do you believe that the government should help to make medical care cheap and universally available?” To such a query, only Snidely J. Whiplash would vote No.
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