Please contact your local representatives and use this letter as a template:

Subject: Request to Amend Proposition 19 — Protect Family Property Transfers

Dear [Assemblymember/Senator Last Name],

I am writing as a concerned California resident and voter in your district regarding the unintended consequences of Proposition 19, particularly the property tax reassessment triggered by parent-to-child transfers of family homes.

While Prop 19 was marketed as a benefit to wildfire victims and seniors, many of us have since realized its severe financial impact on families wishing to pass down property — especially homes that have been in families for generations.

Under the current law, even if a child moves into their family home as their principal residence, they face partial or substantial reassessment if the property’s market value significantly exceeds the exclusion cap. For families in high-cost areas of California, this tax burden is often unsustainable, ultimately forcing the sale of inherited homes.

I respectfully urge you to consider supporting or introducing legislation to amend Prop 19, particularly:

Restoring broader exemptions for family transfers, especially when the child makes the home their primary residence.
Increasing the exclusion cap to reflect California’s real estate values, particularly in regions where even modest family homes now exceed several million dollars in market value.
Providing clearer avenues for families to preserve generational wealth without being punished by reassessment penalties.

Protecting family homes should not be at odds with ensuring fair taxation — but Prop 19’s rigid structure fails to account for California’s diverse housing markets. I hope that as my representative, you will help champion this issue to provide relief and fairness to long-standing California families.

Thank you for your service and consideration. I would appreciate any updates on legislative efforts regarding this matter.

Sincerely,

[Your Full Name]

[Your Address or ZIP Code]

[Optional: Your Phone or Email]

Sign up here to collect signatures. All signatures must be wet/physical signatures. No electronic signatures are valid. All signatures must be from California registered voters. Do not mix counties on a petition, that makes all the signatures invalid. For example, keep all Santa Clara county signatures to one petition. If you have signatures for a different county, use a separate petition for just that county.

 Try to stay in the signature box. If you sign outside of your signature box, skip that blank signature box below and go to the next. You do not want to invalidate someone else’s signature. 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeUAKwbuuvNzWV2Mk5o6O0AGE6DuRa120Z0KStYL2Xo4QA5JQ/viewform

Remember to follow the very specific directions. The signatures are due now at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Sacramento office: 921 11th Street suite 1201 Sacramento, CA 95814.

The deadline to get them in is April 15, 2022.  The whole petition needs to be mailed in. Do NOT rip off the signature page and mail that in. Doing that makes the signatures invalid. The whole petition needs to be mailed in. Using a regular envelope with a forever stamp works. You can fold the petition. Only use blue or black ink on the petition. Remember to sign the Declaration on the bottom of the petition. Do not attempt to print or make copies of the petitions, that will make the petition invalid. Only get the petition from Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association or from a distribution center or from a volunteer who has legit petitions. This petition has the constitution on it. 

Distribution centers to pick up/Sign a petition:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1n-uIOxTgCmIUs9HqpHnNAwUtSON9nTs7hBdfHxcG85c/htmlview#gid=0

Support this and sign up to volunteer here: https://reinstate58.hjta.org

Donate here: https://www.efundraisingconnections.com/c/RepealtheDeathTax/

When the Association of Realtors tried to negate property being passed onto inheritors in the past elections - their effort was transparent and it failed.  With Prop 19, they learned how to game the system.  They advertised this Proposition as a compassionate way for those who suffered loss of their home in a fire or other environmental tragedy, to rebuild and keep their old tax base so they could afford to stay in their community. 

They also added that people over the age of 55 could sell their property three times and still retain their low original tax base.  That section of Prop 19 was the beginning of local suspicions, as which 50 year old is going to sell their home three times in the coming years at that age?

Then they quietly pushed, once again, to eliminate the right of a parent to pass on their home to a child, or grandparent to pass on a home to a grandchild with an affordable tax base.  However, they cleverly didn’t stress this, but instead overwhelmed the public with their selling points of “retain tax base for replacing your home in a fire, etc. or moving three times after age 50”.  This was an extremely clear bait and switch to the public.  If a parent has been in a family home for decades, under Prop 13, they could afford to continue to live in that home.  Prior to the passage of Prop 19's activation this month, that family home could be passed onto the child or grandchild, with a tax base that would ensure they could retain it and live in the home in which they were raised.  Now, because of the incredible greed of the real estate lobby, that right has been destroyed. 

A local friend of mine, Betsy, recently transferred ownership of her home (and the heritage home in which her only child was born and raised) to that daughter.  Betsy then moved several towns away - to an area she could afford.  If she did not transfer the home before February 16th of this year, her daughter would not be able to retain it -  as this daughter would inherit the property under Prop 19 in the future, upon Betsy’s death.  Under the pre Prop 19 regulation, the daughter would inherit the home and the tax base, allowing her to live in her childhood home.  With the tricky revision in Prop 19, the home is reappraised to the current value and the child is taxed upon that value.  In Betsy’s case, the property tax would have jumped from $7,000 yr. to $63,000+ per year - hiking the daughter’s property tax beyond what she could pay - forcing her to sell the home.  This is exactly what the realtors gleefully wanted, and with Prop 19, it’s what they achieved.

The public is now becoming aware of this veiled property grab - and they are very angry.  Once the rumblings reach the crescendo I see coming, there must be a bill to overturn this section of the bill. 

We want to keep community in California by correcting Proposition 19. Reverse the portion of Proposition 19 that eliminates the parent - child and grandparent - grandchild exclusion from reassessment. 

This would reverse the massive tax increase section in Proposition 19 (passed November of 2020) if you choose to leave your property to a child or grandchild.  Prop 19 eliminates the current tax base when leaving your property to inheritors, raises the tax base on your property to an outrageous amount for your children and grandchildren - often to the point of forcing them to sell as their only option.
Wild fire victims would still retain their benefits and seniors over 55 years old could still move three times and keep their tax base - those benefits remain.  By forcing your personal property onto the real estate market, affordable housing will be greatly diminished, and only realtors will benefit. Rent will also massively increase on residential properties if we do not reverse this problem. We want Californians to have affordable housing.

The link to find your representatives:

http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov

Santa Clara County representatives:

Assembly Member Marc Berman, Senator Josh Becker