ARTICLE
With the dust settling from the March 5, 2024 election cycle, local, city, and county election offices have sent their vote tallies to the California Secretary of State (SOS) for final certification. Now all voters can look forward to a few months of enjoying the transition from winter to spring and, hopefully, the warm summer weather, without facing any major disasters or wildfires like those experienced in Santa Cruz County in the past years. As you may recall, both the City of Santa Cruz and the County of Santa Cruz placed 1/2 cent sales tax measures on the March ballot. Measure K (County) received 54.61% support and Measure L (City) received 61.78% support. The timing of these measures to be placed on the March ballot was both critical to receive voter support and also because of a larger November election ballot which includes a Presidential election as well as a series of statewide ballot measures that seemingly would be competing with local measures. Statically proven when there are a large number of state measures at the top of a voter’s ballot, the lower level (local) measures get overlooked. And if the voters are in a particularly sour mood because of the flat economy, housing and rental housing costs and food, gas and other home good prices rising beyond the budget — voters either don’t vote or say NO to any and all measures Two years ago, California’s two most respected polling organizations, UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and the Public Policy Institute of California, asked residents about their tax burdens and both found an increasing discontent in part because they were feeling the pinch of other costs of living. The polling punctuated voters’ rejection of a tax increase measure on the 2020 ballot that would have changed Proposition 13, the iconic property tax limit approved by voters in 1978, by increasing taxes on commercial property. The same discontent was the reason for several ballot measures failing in the 2022 election cycle. So the City and County took a chance that the March 2024 election was a ‘better bet’ and it proved to be the case. Why is the November election cycle so important to local government and anti-tax groups? Hoping to leverage popular resistance to tax increases, business and anti-tax groups led by the California Business Roundtable have qualified a measure for the November ballot that would make raising state and local taxes much more difficult. If passed, the measure would require two-thirds votes for any local tax increases, effectively overturning a state Supreme Court ruling that local taxes proposed by initiative require only simple majority votes. It also would subject any state tax increases to voter approval and two-thirds votes by the Legislature. The Measure’s qualification has touched off a fierce battle between business, anti-tax supporters and Governor Newsom, pro-tax interests. The Governor and the state Legislature have filed suit hoping to persuade the State Supreme Court that the measure is a ‘constitutional revision’ instead of an amendment to the state constitution. This legal tactic, if the court agrees, effectively would not allow ballot measures to amend the constitution. As predicted the contending interests have filed written arguments with the court. The Supreme Court has not formally decided to hear the case but if it does, the court will have only a few months to declare whether the measure can be placed on the November ballot. The Legislature has also placed its own measure on the ballot that, if passed, would require the business tax limit measure itself to get two-thirds voter approval. And it passed another ballot measure to reduce the vote margin for local tax and bond measures that increase spending on housing and infrastructure to 55% from the current two-thirds, potentially nullifying the Business Roundtable measure. So while you enjoy the spring and summer months, there is a campaign roaring behind the scenes that will come to an abrupt conclusion if the Court rules in favor of the Governor and the Legislature. It’s a showdown that’s been building for nearly five decades, ever since Proposition 13 won approval. With countless billions of dollars at stake, hundreds of millions of dollars are likely to be spent for and against the three interrelated measures. Stay tuned.
With the dust settling from the March 5, 2024 election cycle, local, city, and county election offices have sent their vote tallies to the California Secretary of State (SOS) for final certification. Now all voters can look forward to a few months of enjoying the transition from winter to spring and, hopefully, the warm summer weather, without facing any major disasters or wildfires like those experienced in Santa Cruz County in the past years.
As you may recall, both the City of Santa Cruz and the County of Santa Cruz placed 1/2 cent sales tax measures on the March ballot. Measure K (County) received 54.61% support and Measure L (City) received 61.78% support. The timing of these measures to be placed on the March ballot was both critical to receive voter support and also because of a larger November election ballot which includes a Presidential election as well as a series of statewide ballot measures that seemingly would be competing with local measures. Statically proven when there are a large number of state measures at the top of a voter’s ballot, the lower level (local) measures get overlooked. And if the voters are in a particularly sour mood because of the flat economy, housing and rental housing costs and food, gas and other home good prices rising beyond the budget — voters either don’t vote or say NO to any and all measures
Two years ago, California’s two most respected polling organizations, UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and the Public Policy Institute of California, asked residents about their tax burdens and both found an increasing discontent in part because they were feeling the pinch of other costs of living.
The polling punctuated voters’ rejection of a tax increase measure on the 2020 ballot that would have changed Proposition 13, the iconic property tax limit approved by voters in 1978, by increasing taxes on commercial property. The same discontent was the reason for several ballot measures failing in the 2022 election cycle. So the City and County took a chance that the March 2024 election was a ‘better bet’ and it proved to be the case. Why is the November election cycle so important to local government and anti-tax groups?
Hoping to leverage popular resistance to tax increases, business and anti-tax groups led by the California Business Roundtable have qualified a measure for the November ballot that would make raising state and local taxes much more difficult.
If passed, the measure would require two-thirds votes for any local tax increases, effectively overturning a state Supreme Court ruling that local taxes proposed by initiative require only simple majority votes. It also would subject any state tax increases to voter approval and two-thirds votes by the Legislature. The Measure’s qualification has touched off a fierce battle between business, anti-tax supporters and Governor Newsom, pro-tax interests. The Governor and the state Legislature have filed suit hoping to persuade the State Supreme Court that the measure is a ‘constitutional revision’ instead of an amendment to the state constitution. This legal tactic, if the court agrees, effectively would not allow ballot measures to amend the constitution. As predicted the contending interests have filed written arguments with the court. The Supreme Court has not formally decided to hear the case but if it does, the court will have only a few months to declare whether the measure can be placed on the November ballot.
The Legislature has also placed its own measure on the ballot that, if passed, would require the business tax limit measure itself to get two-thirds voter approval. And it passed another ballot measure to reduce the vote margin for local tax and bond measures that increase spending on housing and infrastructure to 55% from the current two-thirds, potentially nullifying the Business Roundtable measure.
So while you enjoy the spring and summer months, there is a campaign roaring behind the scenes that will come to an abrupt conclusion if the Court rules in favor of the Governor and the Legislature. It’s a showdown that’s been building for nearly five decades, ever since Proposition 13 won approval. With countless billions of dollars at stake, hundreds of millions of dollars are likely to be spent for and against the three interrelated measures. Stay tuned.