Was Barry Goldwater the father of the modern conservative movement, or was it Howard Jarvis?
"Political analysts often argue about when the modern-day conservative movement in America began," observes Stephen Moore of the CATO Institute. "Some say it began with Barry Goldwater in 1964. Others say it began with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980." Moore maintains that "the conservative, anti-big-government tide in America began 20 years ago with the passage of taxpayer advocate Howard Jarvis' Proposition 13 in California."
Moore describes Proposition 13 as "a political earthquake whose jolt was felt not just in Sacramento but all across the nation, including Washington, D.C." He argues that "Jarvis' initiative to cut California's notoriously high property taxes by 30 percent and then cap the rate of increase in the future was the prelude to the Reagan income tax cuts in 1981. It also incited a nationwide tax revolt at the state and local levels. Within five years of Proposition 13's passage," Moore recalls, "nearly half the states strapped a similar straitjacket on politicians' tax-raising capabilities. Almost all of those tax limitation measures remain the law of the land today."
Acknowledging that "teachers' unions, politicians, newspapers, and corporate lobbyists" have made Proposition 13 "the subject of relentless attack" over the last two decades, Moore proceeds to set the record straight. He notes that the historic tax-cutting measure "ushered in a second California gold rush in the 1980s. California's economic surge in the years following Proposition 13 was to become the envy of the nation," Moore asserts. "In the 10 years after the passage of Proposition 13, incomes in California grew 50 percent faster than in the nation as a whole; jobs grew at twice the national pace."
Moore emphasizes that tax cuts have a dual impact. "The major effect of Proposition 13 has been to save the average homeowner in California tens of thousands of dollars in property tax payments over the past 20 years," he observes. "That is money that would have fueled an even more rapid buildup in California's state and local public bureaucracies if it had been sent to Sacramento and city hall. Californians intuitively understand this," says Moore. "That is why a large majority of California residents say that they would vote for Propositon 13 again if it were on the ballot this year."
Passage of Proposition 13 may indeed mark the beginning of the modern-day conservative movement, but what will be the next milestone? Surely it will be the explosion of this long-festering anti-tax fervor on the national level. Tax cuts, of whatever magnitude, will not suffice to quell the gathering storm. Tax reform, real or imagined, will have no effect. Nothing less will do than abolition of the direct national income tax, and repeal of the 16th Amendment. We must go back to the tax system our Founding Fathers carefully crafted for us, to discourage the growth of the central government and protect the rights and prerogatives of the people and the states.
