The Summer that Elvis Died and Proposition 13 Was Born

Readers:

Anniversary enthusiasts in the U.S. this week have noted that is has been exactly 30 years since Elvis Presley died at his Graceland Mansion in Tennessee (despite the occasional sighting of Elvis still alive). California political historians will also remember that it was that same summer of 1977 when state politics and then U.S. national politics was sent reeling by the birth of something, Proposition 13.

California's famous tax-cutting initiative was the Big Bang of the U.S. tax-cutting movement and the conservative revolution that swept Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Presidency in 1980. And, it all happened basically by accident.

I spent the summer of 1977 as an intern in the office of the California Assembly Speaker, and as an eyewitness to those events. I also later wrote about them as a political science student at Berkeley. Ten years ago, on the twentieth anniversary of that summer, the Sacramento Bee invited me to write about how Proposition 13 was born. Being an anniversary enthusiast myself, here is the lead and a link to that article.

Jim Shultz

The Summer that Elvis Died and Proposition 13 Was Born

Proposition 13 Pop Quiz

Who among the following opposed Proposition 13 when it was voted on in June 1978?

A) Former GOP Governors Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian

B) Standard Oil of California

C) The Bank of America

D) Atlantic Richfield

E) Southern Pacific Railroad

Answer: All of the above

In case you didn't watch any television or read any newspapers for the past few weeks, this summer marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. Elvis, by most reports, is still dead. Proposition 13, however, still shapes the basic outlines of California government and politics three decades later. For that reason alone, the story of its birth is an important one. It is the story of how, by political fluke, California ended up creating a perpetual, multi-billion dollar tax cut for the state's wealthiest corporations - a tax cut that California's corporate leaders not only didn't ask for but which, at the time, they tried very hard to torpedo.

Here is the link to the full article.