While researching our Team members of Latin America, I came across an August, 1978 issue of the Wells Fargo Banker that had a picture of a young Jerry Brown.

Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown was the Governor of California  from 1975-83. Brown is currently serving as the State's Attorney General . The picture is from a report on Gov. Brown's meeting in Wells Fargo's board room with executives from major corporations. Brown was discussing the impact of Proposition 13  on the State's fiscal health.

Prop. 13 has a 30-year history of controversy. On June 6, 1978, Californians passed the measure with a 65% approval. Prop. 13 slashed property taxes in half overnight and changed the relationship between schools and their communities. While property owners got tax relief, communities had to devise creative new ways to get money for services. Voters in other states took up the "tax revolt" that manifested in California and started cutting taxes across the nation with similar results to communities.

After the proposition passed, Brown urged corporate tax savings be put into programs that would boost the economy. Before his meeting with executives, though, the Governor participated in a program Wells Fargo had at the time, "get-acquainted" coffee meetings in the Penthouse high atop the San Francisco Headquarters.

The article did not detail the conversation between California's Governor and Wells Fargo employees in attendance. But the Archives do bear out the fact that Wells Fargo enjoyed property tax savings of $1.2 million dollars from Prop. 13. The Company donated the money to charity.