Howard Jarvis
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Howard Arnold Jarvis (September 22, 1903 – August 12, 1986) was an American businessman, lobbyist, and
politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...
. He was a tax policy activist responsible for passage of California's Proposition 13 in 1978.


Early life and education

Jarvis was born in Magna, Utah. Although he was raised as a Mormon, he smoked cigars and drank
vodka Vodka ( ; is a clear distilled beverage, distilled alcoholic beverage. Its varieties originated in Poland and Russia. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impurities and flavourings. Traditionally, it is ...
as an adult. He graduated from
Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public university, public land grant colleges, land-grant research university with its main campus in Logan, Utah, United States. Founded in 1888 under the Morrill Land-Grant Acts as Utah's federal ...
. In
Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
, 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 Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Re ...
in 1964. He moved to California in the 1930s due to a suggestion by Earl Warren. Jarvis bought his home at 515 North Crescent Heights Boulevard in Los Angeles for $8,000 in 1941. By 1976, it was assessed at $80,000. He married his third wife, Estelle Garcia, around 1965.


Political career

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 The mayor of Los Angeles is the head of the executive branch of the government of Los Angeles and the chief executive of Los Angeles. The office is officially Non-partisan democracy, nonpartisan, a change made in the 1909 charter; previously, ...
on an anti-tax platform and gained a reputation as a harsh critic of government. He founded the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in 1978. 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 Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
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.


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.


Controversies


DUI arrest

Jarvis was arrested for DUI on March 15, 1978. 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". During the trial Jarvis argued that his erratic driving was the result of threats against his life which triggered fear and anxiety.


Racial slurs

Jarvis was heard referring to one of his Jewish opponents as a "lying kike lawyer from Brooklyn". The incident was reported during the faile
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'' reporte
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. "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".


Film appearance

In 1980, he had a
cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...
in the
film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
''
Airplane! ''Airplane!'' (alternatively titled ''Flying High!'') is a 1980 American disaster film, disaster comedy film written and directed by Jim Abrahams and brothers David Zucker, David and Jerry Zucker in their List of directorial debuts, directoria ...
'', 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 Robert Blakely Hays (born July 24, 1947) is an American actor, known for a variety of television and film roles since the 1970s. He came to prominence around 1980, co-starring in the two-season domestic sitcom ''Angie (TV series), Angie'', and ...
) 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.


Death

Jarvis died in 1986 in Los Angeles at the age of 82, of complications of a blood disease.


Bibliography

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Additional sources

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References


External links


Howard Jarvis at Find-A-Grave
*
When Jarvis Stormed the CapitolJarvis group evolves into a money machine
''
Contra Costa Times The ''East Bay Times'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Walnut Creek, California, United States, owned by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of Media News Group, that serves Contra Costa and Alameda counties, in the East ...
'' March 10, 2010.
Howard Jarvis Collection, 1970-1986. Guide California State Library, California History Room.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarvis, Howard 1903 births 1986 deaths Former Latter Day Saints Activists from California California Republicans People from Orange County, California People from Magna, Utah Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) Utah State University alumni