- The state lost billions of dollars in revenue.
- Public services like education deteriorated.
Westerners also took the lead in resisting taxes. In 1978, voters in California overwhelmingly approved Howard Jarvis's Proposition 13, which capped state property taxes at 1 percent and limited future tax assessments as long as property was not sold. Support for the measure was driven, in part, by concerns over inflation, which raised homeowners' tax liability without improving their standard of living. Proposition 13 also reflected-and fed--a growing pessimism about government and what it could do. The pessimism proved self-fulfilling. In one stroke, California lost 7 billion dollars in revenues, and public services (especially education) deteriorated quickly. The political allure of the tax revolt was great, however. Caps on taxes succeeded in trimming budgets without targeting particular social programs and transferred to legislatures the politically costly business of deciding where to make the cuts. Other states began following suit. Strict taboos against property tax increases became the cornerstone of conservative politics.