Howard Jarvis

Jarvis was born in Magna, Utah. Although he was raised as a Mormon, he smoked cigars and drank vodka as an adult.

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. He served as a press officer for Herbert Hoover's 1932 presidential campaign and supported Barry Goldwater in 1964.{{Cite book |last=Leonhardt |first=David |title=Ours Was The Shining Future |publisher=Random House New York |year=2023 |isbn=9780812993202 |pages=251}}

He moved to California in the 1930s due to a suggestion by Earl Warren.{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919744-1,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103030424/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919744-1,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 3, 2012|title=Maniac or Messiah?|date=June 19, 1978|magazine=Time|access-date=2009-04-18}} Jarvis bought his home at 515 North Crescent Heights Boulevard in Los Angeles for $8,000 in 1941.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-re-125curwen30apr30-story.html|title=A history of paradise|last=Curwen|first=Thomas|date=April 30, 2006|work=Los Angeles Times|pages=S–16|access-date=2009-04-18}} By 1976, it was assessed at $80,000. He married his third wife, Estelle Garcia, around 1965.

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 incumbent Thomas Kuchel. Subsequently, Jarvis ran several times for Mayor of Los Angeles on an anti-tax platform and gained a reputation as a harsh critic of government. He founded the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in 1978.{{cite web |title=The History of HJTA - Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association |url=https://www.hjta.org/about-hjta/the-history-of-hjta/ |publisher=Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association}}

The HJTA pushed for the passage of California Proposition 13 in 1978. The proposition adjusted the property tax rate, pegging it at 1% of the purchase price of the property. This proposal was popular, largely due to the high inflation and associated rises in property taxes through the 1970s. 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. The ballot measure passed with nearly two-thirds of the vote. Two years later, voters in Massachusetts enacted a similar measure.

In the campaign, Jarvis argued that lowering property tax rates would cause landlords to pass savings on to renters, who were upset at their rapidly rising rents driven by the high inflation of the 1970s. Most landlords did not do this, which became a motivating factor for rent control.{{ r | Birth_of_RC_in_SF | p=2 | q=Proposition 13 threw fuel on the fire. One of Howard Jarvis' arguments for rolling back and rapidly freezing escalating property taxes (an inflation-induced mess, too) was that the savings would be passed onto tenants. Although several large San Francisco property owners passed Proposition 13 savings on to some 7,000 tenants, most landlords did not. In jurisdictions with large tenant populations like San Francisco, the empty promises became a rallying cry for activists. }}

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.jeffersonawards.org/pastwinners/national |title=National Winners | public service awards | Jefferson Awards.org |access-date=2013-08-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124043935/http://jeffersonawards.org/pastwinners/national |archive-date=2010-11-24 |url-status=dead }}

Jarvis was arrested for DUI on March 15, 1978.{{Cite news |date=1978-07-13 |title=jDUI |pages=1 |work=Contra Costa Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/contra-costa-times-jdui/126697287/ |access-date=2023-12-16}} Jarvis was pulled over in Ventura County by officer Michael Kipp for driving at a high rate of speed and swerving across lanes. Kipp testified that Jarvis failed three sobriety tests and was unable to recite the alphabet. Kipper further stated that during their interaction Jarvis denied driving the car and remarked "That's right, I'm Howard Jarvis and you realize what you've done to yourself".{{Cite news |date=1978-07-13 |title=jDUI |pages=1 |work=Contra Costa Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/contra-costa-times-jdui/126697287/ |access-date=2023-12-16}} During the trial Jarvis argued that his erratic driving was the result of threats against his life which triggered fear and anxiety.{{Cite news |date=1978-07-14 |title=Sacramento Bee 14 Jul 1978 |pages=19 |work=The Sacramento Bee |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-bee-sacramento-bee-14-jul/70282464/ |access-date=2023-12-16}}

Jarvis was heard referring to one of his Jewish opponents as a "lying kike lawyer from Brooklyn".{{Cite news |date=1980-06-08 |title=Article clipped from The Los Angeles Times |pages=33 |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times/126694839/ |access-date=2023-12-16}} The incident was reported during the failed [https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_9,_Income_Taxes_Initiative_(June_1980) Proposition 9] campaign of 1980. Proposition 9 was an effort championed by Jarvis designed to limit income taxes in California. Following a debate with attorney and former assemblyman William T. Bagley on San Francisco television station KPIX Jarvis reportedly commended Bagley for his debate performance and, as Bagley recalls it, stated "You're not like Reiner. He is a goddamned lying lawyer kike son of a bitch from Brooklyn." Jarvis was referring to Los Angeles city controller Ira Reiner, who is Jewish, and was a strong opponent of Proposition 9. San Francisco Examiner reporter [https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jim-Wood-a-giant-in-Bay-Area-journalism-2789224.php Jim Wood] recalled hearing Jarvis only say "lying kike lawyer from Brooklyn" in reference to Reiner.

Jarvis was criticized by Asian-American groups for using the slur "Japs" after the defeat of Proposition 9.{{Cite news |date=1980-06-04 |title=Jarvis slur |pages=7 |work=News-Pilot |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-pilot-jarvis-slur/126710329/ |access-date=2023-12-16}} "The public employees have won the first battle like the Japs won the first battle at Pearl Harbor, but the United States won the war," remarked Jarvis following the election. The slur also appears in print in Jarvis' 1979 book "I'm Mad as Hell: The Exclusive Story of the Tax Revolt and Its Leader".{{Cite book |last1=Jarvis |first1=Howard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mmowAAAAMAAJ |title=I'm Mad as Hell: The Exclusive Story of the Tax Revolt and Its Leader |last2=Pack |first2=Robert |date=1979 |publisher=Times Books |isbn=978-0-8129-0858-9 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=I'M MAD AS HELL |url=https://members.tripod.com/R_Trostel/prop_13/MAD_HELL.HTM |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=members.tripod.com}}

In 1980, he had a cameo appearance in the film Airplane!, playing an incredibly patient taxicab passenger. His character apparently spends the entire movie sitting in an empty cab waiting for the driver (played by Robert Hays) to return, with the meter running all the while. Jarvis has the final line in the movie, which he says after the end credits; he looks at his watch and says "Well, I'll give him another twenty minutes, but that's it!" The inside joke was that Jarvis would never have paid for such a charge in real life.{{cite web |last1=Fox |first1=Joel |title=The Funniest Part of California's 1978 Tax Revolt {{!}} Essay |url=https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/02/24/the-funniest-part-of-californias-1978-tax-revolt/chronicles/who-we-were/ |website=Zócalo Public Square |access-date=28 January 2023 |date=24 February 2015}}

Jarvis died in 1986 in Los Angeles at the age of 82, of complications of a blood disease.{{cite web |last1=Lindsey |first1=Robert |title=Howard Jarvis, 82, Tax Rebel, is Dead |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/14/obituaries/howard-jarvis-82-tax-rebel-is-dead.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=28 January 2023 |date=14 August 1986}}

• {{cite book|last=Jarvis|first=Howard|author2=Robert Pack|title=I'm mad as hell : the exclusive story of the tax revolt and its leader|publisher=Times Books|location=New York|year=1979|pages=310 pp|isbn=0-8129-0858-9 |oclc=5170210}}

• {{cite journal|last=Smith|first=David A.|date=Summer 1999|title=Howard Jarvis, Populist Entrepreneur: Reevaluating the Causes of Proposition 13|journal=Social Science History|publisher=Duke University Press|volume=23|issue=2|pages=173–210|doi=10.1017/S0145553200018058|jstor=1171520|s2cid=148178213 |url=http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1c53j7q8}}

{{Reflist|refs=

{{ cite web | url=http://www.sfaa.org/0406forbes.html | title=The Birth of Rent Control in San Francisco | last1=Forbes | first1=Jim | last2=Sheridan | first2=Matthew | publisher=San Francisco Apartment Association | date=1999-06-01 | access-date=2018-08-05 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720034219/http://www.sfaa.org/0406forbes.html | archive-date=2008-07-20 | url-status=dead }}

{{cite book|title= How We Got Here: The '70s|last= Frum|first= David|author-link= David Frum|year= 2000|publisher= Basic Books|location= New York, New York|isbn= 0-465-04195-7|page= [https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/325 325]|url= https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/325|url-access= registration}}

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• [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7473 Howard Jarvis at Find-A-Grave]
• {{IMDb name|id=0419060|name=Howard Jarvis}}
• [http://www.calbuzz.com/2009/05/calbuzz-dustbin-of-history-when-howard-jarvis-stormed-the-capitol/ When Jarvis Stormed the Capitol]
• [http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_14641205 Jarvis group evolves into a money machine] Contra Costa Times March 10, 2010.
• [https://oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=California%20State%20Library::California%20History%20Room;idT=ACU-2736 Howard Jarvis Collection, 1970-1986. Guide California State Library, California History Room.]

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Category:1903 births

Category:1986 deaths

Category:Former Latter Day Saints

Category:Activists from California

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Category:People from Magna, Utah

Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

Category:Utah State University alumni