Howard Jarvis

Howard Arnold Jarvis (September 22, 1903 – August 12, 1986) was an American businessman, lobbyist, and politician. He was an anti-tax activist responsible for passage of California's Proposition 13 in 1978.

Early life and education

Jarvis was born in Magna, Utah, and died in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Utah State University. In Utah he had some political involvement working with his father's campaigns and his own. His father was a state Supreme Court judge and, unlike Jarvis, a member of the Democratic Party. Howard Jarvis was active in the Republican Party and also ran small town newspapers. Although raised Mormon, he smoked cigars and drank vodka as an adult. He moved to California in the 1930s due to a suggestion by Earl Warren.^[2] Jarvis bought his home at 515 North Crescent Heights Boulevard in Los Angeles for $8,000 in 1941.^[3] By 1976, it was assessed at $80,000.^[2] He married his third wife, Estelle Garcia, around 1965.^[1]

Political career and Proposition 13

Jarvis was a Republican primary candidate for the U.S. Senate in California in 1962, but the nomination and the election went to the moderate Republican Thomas Kuchel. Subsequently, he ran several times for Mayor of Los Angeles on an anti-tax platform and gained a reputation as a harsh critic of government. An Orange County businessman, he went on to lead the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and spearheaded Proposition 13,^[4] the California property tax-cutting initiative passed in 1978 which slashed property taxes by 57%.

Jarvis and his wife collected tens of thousands of signatures to enable Prop. 13 to appear on a statewide ballot, for which he garnered national attention.^[4] The ballot measure passed with nearly two-thirds of the vote.^[4] Two years later, voters in Massachusetts enacted a similar measure.^[4]

Politics and Proposition 13

Jarvis employed use of the California iniative process of which "Prop 13" was made into law and the iniative became popular with California homeowners. "Prop 13" placed a ceiling on property taxes which had previously been assessed relative to assessed value based on current market valuation of real property by county assessors. That the iniative process of Proposition 13 created a different formula for property taxes (1% of purchase price of property) was popular with the 1970s single family homeowner of California. Jarvis argued an assessed value of property based on unattained gain that exceeds the original home purchase price is an unrealized gain and homeowners found "Prop 13" appealing since it was based on the actual purchase price of real estate. During the inflationary period of the 1970s assessments had increased each year and single-family homeowners who had purchased their homes in an earlier time claimed the new tax assessments unaffordable. The "Prop 13" iniative sets a formula for property taxation at 1% of the purchase price of real estate.

Proposition 13 (officially named the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) was an amendment of the Constitution of California Section 1. (a) The maximum amount of any ad valorem tax on real property shall not exceed one percent (1%) of the full cash value of such property. The one percent (1%) tax to be collected by the counties and apportioned according to law to the districts within the counties.

Jarvis and his wife collected tens of thousands of signatures to enable Prop. 13 to appear on a statewide ballot, for which he garnered national attention.^[4] The ballot measure passed with nearly two-thirds of the vote.^[4] Two years later, voters in Massachusetts enacted a similar measure.^[4]

Impact on rent control laws

There were rent control laws in effect in other States before Proposition 13 was passed in California, and there is some evidence that similar Rent Control laws were passed in a few California Cities or Counties in reaction to the passage of Proposition 13. The reasoning was that if Landlords had new protections from increases in taxes, then Tenants should also have protections from increases in rents.

Awards

In 1979, Jarvis received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.^[5]

Film appearance

In 1980, he had a cameo appearance in the film Airplane!, playing an incredibly patient taxicab passenger. This was an inside joke that people outside California were probably unaware of since Jarvis, a champion of fiscal responsibility, spent the entire movie sitting in an empty cab waiting for the driver to return, with the meter running all the while. Jarvis had the final line in the movie, which he said after the end credits. Still sitting in the cab with the fare at $113 and still rising (equivalent to $325 in 2015), having not moved at all, he looks at his watch and says "Well, I'll give him another twenty minutes, but that's it!"

Bibliography

• Jarvis, Howard; Robert Pack (1979). I'm mad as hell : the exclusive story of the tax revolt and its leader. New York: Times Books. pp. 310 pp. ISBN 0-8129-0858-9. OCLC 5170210. 

Filmography

• Airplane! (1980) - Man in Taxi

References

• Smith, David A. (Summer 1999). "Howard Jarvis, Populist Entrepreneur: Reevaluating the Causes of Proposition 13". Social Science History. Duke University Press. 23 (2): 173–210. doi:10.2307/1171520. JSTOR 1171520. 

Notes

External links

• Howard Jarvis at Find-A-Grave
• Howard Jarvis at the Internet Movie Database
• When Jarvis Stormed the Capitol
• Jarvis group evolves into a money machine Contra Costa Times March 10, 2010.