By Jon Coupal
the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
In August, the Fair Political Practices Commission imposed one of the largest fines in its history against Los Angeles County for using taxpayer funds to advocate for a ballot measure it had placed on the ballot.
Measure H was a massive sales tax increase, ostensibly for homeless programs. That same illegal behavior resulted in a lawsuit by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
The $1.3 million fine imposed by the FPPC against a local government entity for campaign finance disclosure and reporting violations sent shockwaves throughout the local government community which had grown accustomed to sending out campaign mailers thinly disguised as “informational” material.
Over the last three decades, these “informational” campaigns looked more and more like typical political advertising.
To read the entire column, please click here.
note to our valued members and supporters: To increase the reach of our message to as many Californians as possible, HJTA made an agreement with the Southern California News Group papers to carry Jon Coupal's weekly column. The newspapers in the group, including the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Daily News, have added a paywall that allows only a limited number of page views per month, and then asks readers to become subscribers. HJTA is not marketing these subscriptions or receiving any payment from them. The columns are exclusive to SCNG's papers for one week and then are posted in full on HJTA's own website, http://www.hjta.org, under "California Commentaries," where you can read them at your convenience, or read Jon's column online in all the SCNG papers at these links:
Jon Coupal is the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA). He is a recognized expert in California fiscal affairs and has argued numerous tax cases before the courts.
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