Hi, everybody,

Thank you for all your hard work to collect signatures to restore the parent-child transfer exclusion from reassessment that Proposition 19 took away from California families. We share your frustration that the clock ran out on us before we were able to collect enough signatures to get the initiative on the November ballot.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is the only organization that has worked to oppose and then repeal this change to the law. The entire staff has worked very hard, and this responsibility was taken on by all of us in addition to our regular responsibilities to the organization. I'm not sure everyone realizes what is involved in writing a legally valid initiative or running a statewide campaign to qualify it for the ballot. Here's the Secretary of State's guide to qualifying an initiative:
https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/ballot-measures/pdf/statewide-initiative-guide.pdf
And here's the California Fair Political Practices Commission's campaign disclosure manual for ballot measure committees, which explains what's necessary to stay in legal compliance when fundraising and advertising: 
https://fppc.ca.gov/content/dam/fppc/NS-Documents/TAD/Campaign%20Manuals/Manual_3/Final_Manual_3.pdf

If your group has the time and the resources, you have every right to file an initiative with the Attorney General's office and run a campaign to qualify it for the ballot. You certainly don't need permission from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. We're a group of concerned Californians just like you are, the only difference being our organization's 45-year history of fighting for taxpayers in the courts, in the legislature and on the ballot.

With regard to naming and branding the campaign, of course you can do what you think is best for your initiative. I can share with you what we did, if it's helpful. We invested in polling and consulted individuals with decades of experience running statewide ballot measure campaigns. The recommendation was to avoid using a proposition number in the title and branding for several reasons: 
As the distance in time from the 2020 election grows, the term "Prop. 19" becomes increasingly unfamiliar to voters, who generally don't recall which proposition it was. 
The use of "19" will ultimately cause voter confusion when the new initiative is on the ballot and has its own proposition number.
"Repeal the Death Tax" tests very well as an attention-grabbing title and link, easily remembered. (This has since been validated by search engine analytics.)
"Repeal the Death Tax" accurately describes that the initiative targets the tax increase in Prop. 19, not the tax benefits.
At this time, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is going through the data from the previous two efforts to see where our advertising and mailings were most productive, and to estimate what financial resources would be necessary if we were to try again. While the donation link on the RepealtheDeathTax.comwebsite currently remains active for those who wish to support a new campaign, we are much more focused on encouraging people to sign up on a new list so that we have current and verified contact information. This will enable us to quickly send a notification or a petition to everyone who wants to sign it. The time allotted by law to collect signatures is very limited, so having an adequate base of supporters at the start is very important to the success of the effort. The number of sign-ups is the number we're watching. (As you know, we can't legally retain or use the names and addresses from the signed petitions.)

If you'd like to help the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association's effort, you can distribute this direct link to sign up: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd8diRi8H2Z7xF_EBNQbwcmzgijAsF32m_Bc5RtPc3iDjumgQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Thank you again for all your efforts to collect signatures on the initiative petition and for your generous donations to support the campaign. Everyone at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association greatly appreciates you and wishes you well in all your future endeavors.

Gratefully,

Susan

Susan Shelley
VP, Communications
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association