CA Supreme Court Removes Taxpayer Protection Initiative from November Ballot

Today, the California Supreme Court sided with Gavin Newsom and California Democrat politicians in removing the California Taxpayer Protection Initiative from the November ballot.

The California Taxpayer Protection Initiative (CTPI) is a citizens initiative that collected the required amount of valid signatures — over 1.4 million — from Californians to be placed on the ballot. The measure would make it harder for state and local politicians to impose costly and unfair tax hikes — the reason that politicians sued to block it from the ballot.

Specificially, the California Taxpayer Protection Initiative would:

• Restore a two-thirds vote for any tax hike – thus ending the way they imposed the car and gas takes hikes recently
• Impose a stricter definition on what is a "tax" so politicians can't call them "fees"
• Require the words "tax increase" be included on the official title of any measure that appears on the ballot that contains a tax hike inside of it, and
• Repeal dozens of tax hikes imposed after Jan 1, 2022 – immediately saving taxpayers money

Carl DeMaio, a candidate for State Assembly and chairman of the tax-fighting group Reform California — which helped collect signatures to place the initiative on the ballot, says that the decision stripped citizens initiative rights.

“Today, the liberal justices of the California Supreme Court sided with California’s corrupt politicians to strip citizens of the initiative rights that they have had for over 112 years," said Demaio. "By removing the California Taxpayer Protection Initiative from the November ballot, the Sacramento Swamp has shown how far they will go in their abuse of power to silence their opposition and prevent reform from happening.”

DeMaio says that the decision further demonstrates that, just as they have done nationally, California Democrats are getting liberal judges to "do their dirty work for them" and weaponize the courts against taxpayers.

DeMaio also explains that, for as much as Democrats claim to support democracy, this decision attacks democracy directly.

"California Democrats knew voters – if given the chance to vote – would overwhelmingly vote to strengthen Prop 13 and make it harder for politicians to raise taxes," said DeMaio.

"California Democrats have once again undermined the integrity of our elections," he continued.

But the worst result of the decision, according to DeMaio, is that now California Democrats get what they wanted in November: "a ballot filled with costly and unfair tax hikes and two initiatives to gut Prop 13 —Taxpayers won’t get to vote YES on a counter-measure to limit taxes."

DeMaio is working to defeat the Democrats’ ACA-1 and ACA-13 measures to gut Prop 13, as well as statewide and local tax hikes they are placing on the ballot. DeMaio and Reform California are also leading a campaign to flip 12 target seats in the November election — but only 9 are needed to end the Democrats' super-majority and make it harder for them to raise taxes.

“The bottom-line remains: Californians cannot afford our state’s high taxes and cost of living — and until we fix the cost crisis, Californians will continue to flee this state,” explained DeMaio.

That's why DeMaio is pledging to continue fighting back and is urging the public not to give up hope — and instead channel their anger into action and get involved this election cycle in these key campaigns.