Jul 15, 2013, 2:18pm PDT
Survey shows support for Prop. 13
A new survey shows that most California voters oppose higher local taxes, according to a post by Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
A new survey shows that most California voters oppose higher local taxes, according to a post by Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Christopher Arns
Staff Writer-
Sacramento Business Journal

A new survey shows that most California voters oppose higher local taxes, according to a post from a leading anti-tax advocacy group. The survey comes from Probolsky Research, a Southern California research firm with an office in Sacramento, and was highlighted in a recent blog Monday by Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

According to the Probolsky survey, 55.5 percent of voters would vote down any measures that would hike local taxes, even if the increase would fund services. Coupal’s blog links the survey results to what he says is continued support for Proposition 13, the state’s landmark 1978 initiative that restricted future tax property tax hikes.

Most polls do continue to show California voters are leery of any statewide attempts to tinker with Proposition 13, although a poll from the Public Policy Institute of California published in December 2012 found that 58 percent of likely voters would support higher taxes on corporate land transfers — something Coupal’s group opposes, as the anti-tax advocate told the Business Journal earlier this summer.

And the Probolsky survey notes that while voters responded negatively to tax hikes, it doesn’t mean local governments won’t be successful in passing them.

Anti-tax advocates are worried that California Democrats, who nearly have a supermajority in the Legislature, will try to change Proposition 13. Lawmakers proposed a handful of bills this year that would lower thresholds needed by local governments to hike property taxes