Schrag: California’s Initiative-industrial Complex: Prop 98 and Faux Populism

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Peter Schrag

Thirty years ago, when Howard Jarvis drove Proposition 13 to a lopsided victory at the California polls, the old curmudgeon expended a fair amount of invective trying to prove that he was a real populist and not just a running dog for the Los Angeles Apartment Owners Association.

He was in fact employed by the apartment owners and his campaign was based there. But his argument was borne out by the fact that his shrewd direct mail campaign generated many thousands of small contributions from elderly homeowners fearful that they'd lose those homes to escalating property taxes. Many became members of what's now the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

But if Jarvis was in fact a real populist, his successors at HJTA, sponsors of Proposition 98 on the June 3 ballot, have a much harder time making the case.

The measure, which promises to restrain governments' use of eminent domain, would also end rent control in the 11 California cities that have it – a few others have some renter protections — and prohibit it forever more. Its big bucks support comes primarily from apartment owner groups, the owners of mobile home parks, real estate associations, the Farm Bureau and from HJTA itself.

Thirty years ago, many of those apartment owners implicitly promised their tenants that if Proposition 13 passed and their taxes were rolled back, renters would get a share of the savings. That didn't happen. But Proposition 13 did add fuel to the push for rent control in Santa Monica and other California cities.

So in a way, Proposition 98 brings the story full circle.

Jon Coupal, the president of HJTA and designated voice for the campaign, argues that despite the large number of big funders, his measure has many more small contributors than the forces opposing it and/or backing Proposition 99, the house-broken alternative sponsored by among others, the California League of Cities and the California State Association of Counties.

Unlike Proposition 98, Proposition 99's version of eminent domain reform would cover only condemnation of residences for delivery to private developers and in no way affects rent control. It does not include language, as Proposition 98 appears to do, that could severely impede the ability of government to impose environmental controls affecting private property. If it passes with more votes than Proposition 98 it would go into the constitution. Proposition 98 would not.