'Son of Proposition 13’ aims to balance budget

Press, 2 April 1979, Page 13

'Son of Proposition 13’ aims to balance budget

BY JOHN HUTCHINSON IN SAN FRANCISCO — Proposition 13 was a smash hit with the voters of California last year. Now there is a new show in production which might be called “Son of Proposition 13.” The measure adopted last year by direct voter initiative rolled property rates back and established sever limits on the pace at which they may advance annually. The big reduction in revenue to city and county governments caused curtailment of a wide range of services, only the most essential of which have been rescued by the state legislature. Proposition 13 used large surpluses generated by inflation-powered income and sales taxes, distributed to counties and municipalities with the imprecise equity so often employed by government: application of the principle that it is the squeaky wheel which gets the mast grease. The process has reduced many local authorities to the status of supplicants in order to maintain services which until then had been entirely local responsibilities. But aggressive taxpayer organisations are not satisfied. Politicians, they say, are finding ways to evade the strictures on taxing, and, at the state level, have not responded with adequate economy measures. They condemn the accumulation Of the state surpluses. Proposition 13 was drafted by Mr Howard Jarvis and Mr Paul Gann, both professional representatives of conservative business interests. The

success of their measure brought Mr Jarvis national attention. An abrasive, abusive speaker, Mr Jarvis has ranged the nation and even appeared in Britain and France to condemn governments and their servants in coarse and unrelenting terms. Mr Gann’s reciprocal irritation with Mr Jarvis also rises to the surface occasionally, but he has his own new project, to control California's state expenditure. If the voters adopt it (which could happen in June) the measure would forbid the state to spend faster than the. increases in cost of living and population. Mr Gann says he already has the requisite valid signatures (more than to put the proposal on the ballot. He says he has collected 850.000, and is still circulating petitions. To politicians and administrators such figures are chillingly reminiscent of the early support for Proposition 13, which was thereafter adopted by a two-thirds majority. Mr Gann quoted a study showing that his measure would save California’s taxpayers $2600M in the first year of its application' and S6OOOM annually after three years. The phrase, “The politicians did not get the message," has become a popular, if inaccurate, comment in a state where ■ now, more than ever, politicians are as sensitive to voters’ messages as cats are to hot tin roofs. The. phrase has a puni-

tive connotation with appeal to that large segment of citizens which has found the taste of rate reductio: an aperitif. For every irate taxpayer complaint about extravagance, the harassed public official also faces someone’s insistence that a service be fully funded or even augmented. It is not uncommon for both

demands to come from the same person How to respond to such conflicting “messages” has become a big preoccupation of legislators and public servants. Their discomforture seems not to trouble folk like Mr Gann. He is the fellow over there, smiling and rubbing his hands as the signatures add up.