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San Jose Mercury News (CA) - Tuesday, September 12, 1989 San Jose Mercury News, California Obit Contributed By: Debra Ann Click Shouhed, FAG#48576588 PAUL GANN DIES AT 77 PROP. 13 CO-AUTHOR SHAPED POLITICAL AGENDA OF '80S San Jose Mercury News (CA) - Tuesday, September 12, 1989 Paul Gann, the former real estate salesman and government gadfly who led a revolution to slash government spending, died Monday in a Sacramento hospital. He was 77. Gann, who contracted AIDS from a tainted blood transfusion in 1982, "died of pneumonia, arising of HIV virus complications" at 4:40 p.m., said Mary Jo Rogers, a spokeswoman for Kaiser Permanente Medical Center. His wife, Nell, and several other family members were at his side. Gann was admitted to the hospital in frail health on Sept. 2 after falling and breaking his hip at his Carmichael home. The author of the 1978 property tax-cutting initiative Proposition 13 along with Howard Jarvis, Gann was a pivotal force in politics both in California and across the nation for the past 12 years. His successes legitimized a conservative anti-government movement that turned the words "tax increase" into political suicide for most candidates who dared utter them. ''He got politicians from Jerry Brown on down changing their rhetoric and talking in terms of economy, and government living within its means," said California Assembly Republican Leader Ross Johnson of Fullerton. ''Paul Gann was a tireless crusader on behalf of lower taxes, fiscal responsibility and good government," said Gov. George Deukmejian in a written statement Monday evening. "Paul and Howard Jarvis will be remembered for leading the modern-day version of the Boston Tea Party, which culminated in the overwhelming approval of Proposition 13." In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1987 after being diagnosed as having acquired immune deficiency syndrome, Gann suggested his epitaph should say: "Born free. Lived free. And died free." 'People advocate' emerges A soft-spoken Arkansas native who moved to Sacramento during the Depression, Gann already had been bankrupted twice and was retired as a car and real estate salesman when he turned to tax fighting in the early 1970s. He became the self-proclaimed "people's advocate," but he was largely ignored before joining forces with the irrepressible Jarvis in 1978 to campaign for Proposition 13, which cut California property taxes by $7 billion. Jarvis' bullying tactics overshadowed the gentle and grandfatherly Gann, who nonetheless was stubborn in his belief that government was rife with waste and bureaucrats weren't to be trusted. Jarvis and Gann split after Proposition 13's victory, each pursuing a series of ballot initiatives aimed at taking direct control of government out of the hands of the Legislature and handing it to the public. Jarvis died in 1986 at age 83. Gann's successful 1979 "Spirit of 13" initiative, Proposition 4, imposed a cap on government spending that has frustrated government officials ever since. Gann also sponsored the successful Victims' Bill of Rights in 1982. A 1984 initiative to limit the powers of the Legislature was approved by the voters but was largely overturned by the courts. Some of Gann's efforts failed at the polls -- including a 1986 proposal to limit government salaries -- and voters in recent years have passed measures to relieve a portion of the iron grip Gann's earlier moves imposed on government spending. He was trounced by Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston in his only bid for elective office -- the 1980 U.S. Senate race. And voters rejected his own 1988 initiative to amend the Gann limit for transportation spending. Importance unquestioned But government officials and political observers agreed Monday night that there can be no question about Gann's importance. ''This guy is a historic figure," said Eugene Lee, a professor of political science and former director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. "Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann are in effect the political leaders of the last 15 years. (Proposition) 13 and the Gann limit have set the political agenda of the last decade." With Gann's death, the state's anti-tax forces have lost a most important figure -- a character with whom people identified and a magnet for action. He will not be around for the proposal to revamp the Gann limit that is expected on the June 1990 ballot. ''People knew him by name, which is very difficult in this state, and they knew what he stood for," said Joel Fox, who leads the California Tax Reduction Movement that Jarvis left behind. ''As to who will carry on, I don't think anybody will fill the shoes of Paul Gann," said state Senate Minority Caucus Chairman John Doolittle of Roseville. Later initiatives targeted Gann had numerous critics -- those who felt his populist positions simplified problems and ignored the needs of a growing state. They questioned whether some of his later initiatives were designed more to keep a political organization alive than to accomplish legitimate political goals. ''My guess is the organization he headed will now be in a shambles, as it should be," said Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, D-San Francisco. "I think he reduced the potential for a response to the problems existing out there by the artificial spending cap the voters imposed. When we gave back (rebated) $1.2 billion at a time the AIDS fight was out there, and the 'crack' cocaine problem was out there, we were not in a position to deal with those kinds of issues." Gann worked on his causes up until the final weeks of his life, appearing thin, pale and tired at a meeting Aug. 24 with a group organizing to fight a proposal to alter Proposition 13. In addition to his wife, Gann is survived by four children, Polly, Richard, Linda and Jody; 11 grandchildren and one great- grandchild. Funeral arrangements were expected to be announced today. Paul Gann's legacy (box)1978: With Howard Jarvis, successfully pushed Proposition 13, which slashed property taxes. (box)1979: Gann's spending limit, Proposition 4, capped government expenditures and limited increases. (box)1980: Defeated at polls by Sen. Alan Cranston. (box)1982: Gann's Crime Victims' Bill of Rights passes; many provisions are later voided. (box)1984: Voters OK Gann's Proposition 24, reining in legislative leaders; courts later undo the initiative. (box)1986: Proposition 61, limiting officials' salaries, loses. (box)1988: Gann suffers two losses: Proposition 72, to set aside state money for highway work, and Proposition 102, to disclose the names of AIDS victims. Biography & Genealogy Master Index (BGMI) Name: Paul Gann Birth - Death: 1912-1989 Source Citation: The Annual Obituary. 1989. Chicago: St. James Press, 1990. Use the 'Alphabetical Index of Entrants' to locate biographies. (AnObit 1989) The Facts on File Encyclopedia of the Twentieth Century. Edited by John Drexel. New York: Facts on File, 1991. (FacFETw) California state Archives state Government Oral History Program Oral History Interview with PAUL GANN Founder, President, People's Advocate, Inc. 1974 - 1989 September 28, October 19, November 24, 1987 and June 28, 1988 Sacramento, California By Gabrielle Morris Regional Oral History Office The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY Born in Glenn County, Arkansas, in 1912, Paul Gann was one of twelve children. His father was a Church of the Nazarene minister and part-time farmer; his mother a school teacher. Gann graduated from high school in 1928, but gave up a dream of college and law school because of hard times. He married in 1931, and in 1935 he and wife Nell moved to California where he was a salesman and automobile dealer and they raised four children. Although he was unable to enlist in the military in World War II due to a childhood horseback-riding injury that left him with chronic osteomyelitis, he worked for the Army Corps of Engineers as a civilian When the osteomyelitis recurred after a construction accident, Gann was treated with penicillin, then still in the experimental stage, and the bone injury was at last cured. In 1952 and 1956 he was a volunteer for fellow-southerner Estes Kefauver's campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination. Later, Gann ran for a seat on the Modesto City Council. After business reverses, he relocated near Sacramento and by 1968 was active in the Del Paso Heights Parents Patrol. While organizing residents to combat crime, he became concerned about the shabby way they were treated by government. Widespread response to this concern led to the founding of People's Advocate, Inc., in 1974. With Gann as chief spokesman, this 10,000- to 40,OOO-member organization became skilled in collecting signatures to qualify initiative ballot measures and developing public support for their passage. The first two tax-limitation measures sponsored by People's Advocate failed at the polls, but its successes include: Proposition 13 (1978), Property Tax Reform (known as the Jarvis-Gann measure after its co-authors); Proposition 4 (1979), Government Spending Reform, known as the "Spirit of 13;" Proposition 8 (1982), Criminal Justice, known as the Victims' Bill of Rights; Proposition 24 (1984), Legislative Reform Act; Proposition 61 (1986), Public Pay Initiative. A June 1988 People's Advocate measure, Proposition 72, Emergency Reserve, Dedication of Certain Taxes to Transportation, was narrowly defeated. Increasingly, these campaigns have been joined by other citizen groups, business organizations, and individual legislators. Gann's concern for limiting government spending has included forming the Committee to Cap the National Debt. In 1980 he won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate and campaigned against veteran incumbent Alan Cranston. A different crusade, but more crucial personally, is Gann's effort to require notification of local health officials of positive Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome test results. He announced in June 1987 that he himself had contracted this disease after a 1982 blood transfusion. In the fall of 1988. Gann received wide publicity for his support for Proposition 102. one of two ballot measures to institute reporting of infection by the HIV virus. He was also active in opposition to Proposition 99. Cigarette and Tobacco Tax Benefit Fund that year. arguing that the proposed tax increases would encourage bootlegging and other crimes. Proposition 102 was defeated; Proposition 99 was approved by the voters. Paul Gann, 77; led campaign for tax revolt in California SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Paul Gann, who helped launch a voter tax revolt that curbed government spending in California and spread across the nation, died Monday of pneumonia and complications from the AIDS virus. He was 77. best known as half of the Jarvis- Gann political marriage that placed a tax-cutting measure called Proposition 13 on the California ballot in 1978, Gann also sponsored six other ballot measures three that passed and three that failed. Gann and fellow realtor Howard Jarvis emerged from obscurity to become national figures when their Proposition 13 triggered a tidal wave of taxpayer revolt and a frenzy of tax-cutting across the country. It rolled back California property assessments to 1975 levels, set the - tax rate at 1 percent, and clamped a 2 percent limit on assessment increases. As predicted by critics, the rollback reduced funds for schools and local government services, including police protection and libraries, but at a slower pace than was feared. The measure helped create the political climate that elected Ronald Reagan president in 1980. The same year, Gann became a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in an underfunded attempt to oust Democratic incumbent Alan Cranston and was soundly defeated. Gann was hospitalized Sept. 2 after breaking a hip in a fall at his home. He suffered from the AIDS virus contracted in a blood transfusion during heart surgery in 1982 and had developed pneumonia and shingles, a viral infection that causes blisters on the nerve endings. He lapsed into a coma with his family gathered at his bedside. His daughter, Linda Gann Stone, said her father had died of complications from acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Funeral arrangements were pending. Gann was credited with more far reaching legal and state constitutional changes than any Californian since reformist Gov. Hiram Johnson pushed for enactment of the initiative process in the early part of the century. Sen. Pete Wilson, R-Calif., a longtime friend who was working with Gann on an anti-crime initiative, said the reformer was "an idealist and a real fighter for what he believed in." "He understood instinctively that a lot of people felt they weren't represented... so he took it upon himself collectively 'to give a voice to their unmet needs," Wilson said. Gann's name became synonymous with efforts to curb salaries and spending by government and the Legislature, and he fought for victims' rights. "I have never claimed to be anything except what I am, and that is a person who loves this country and loves this state," Gann said in a 1986 interview. Gann sponsored three other voter-approved initiatives to limit state and -local government spending, to promote victims' rights, and to curtail the amount of taxpayers' money lawmakers could spend on themselves. He lost efforts to curb salaries of top-paid public officials and employees, to earmark gasoline sales taxes exclusively for transportation, and to require expanded reporting on AIDS. Gann was a folksy man with milder personality than the fiery tempered Jarvis, who died Aug. 12, 1986, of a blood disease at the age of 83. Gann moved to California from his native Arkansas in 1935. He sold cars in Modesto, then real estate in Sacramento. He is survived by his wife, Nell, four children, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Contributor:
Debra Shouhed <https://www.findagrave.com/user/profile/48576588> - debshouhed@gmail.com <mailto:debshouhed@gmail.com>
Note: PAUL GANN 12 Jun 1912 11 Sep 1989 95608 (Carmichael, Sacramento, CA <http://resources.rootswe
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