Commentary In California, no bad idea goes unburied. The latest revenant is an attempt to repeal the Gann limit. After the Proposition 13 tax limitation was passed in 1978, taxpayer advocates next took on the cause of tax increases: excessive spending. In 1979, voters passed Proposition 4, by a whopping 74 percent. It was called the Gann limit after its major proponent, Paul Gann, a compatriot of Howard Jarvis of Prop. 13 fame. Prop. 4 was simple, and obvious: State spending increases were limited to the increase in population plus inflation. Anything over the Gann limit would be returned to the taxpayers who earned it. It was intended to prevent the state’s endemic problem of runaway spending followed by tax increases. The latest attempt to repeal Gann is being led by the California Budget & Policy Center, which almost always pushes for more spending, paid for by higher taxes in …