Former legislator Dick Mountjoy was a “Prop 13 baby,” a strong supporter of the measure when elected to the assembly for the first time the year when the Proposition 13 property tax reform was on the ballot.
During his campaign for his first office he heard all the official opposition to the measure from the governor on down but he insisted Proposition 13 would pass. He said he knew this because of the “Bob’s Big Boy Poll.”
Mountjoy explained that he would go into the Bob’s Big Boy restaurants and listen to the conversations of average citizens sitting around the tables and lunch counters. He heard the anger over property taxes that were threatening home ownership. Mountjoy knew from the reaction he heard in his restaurant visits that Prop 13 would pass and that he was right to support it.
Dick Mountjoy, a former assemblyman and senator, passed away yesterday. More on Mountjoy from Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters here.