After a primary election featuring a single ballot initiative, the behavioral health measure Proposition 1, the November general election will offer a smorgasbord of measures, some of which could nullify others.
“We just had a snoozer of a March primary,” UC San Diego Political Science Professor Thad Kousser told me. “But we’re going to be back to the tax wars, the tax revolt, the fights over lawsuits, and the culture wars … All of that is going to make for a crowded and loud ballot in November.”
So far 10 measures are slated for a vote, with others in the works. Of those, four qualified, and have passed the final hurdles to appear on the ballot. Another six are eligible, meaning the required number of signatures were collected and verified.
Nearly two dozen other initiatives and referenda are in circulation, including measures on climate action, oil drilling, school gender policies, gambling and medical research into psychedelics.
I’ll explore some of these in the coming weeks, looking at key measures that would affect taxes, marriage equality and housing, among other issues.
Tax warriors go to battle: Voice of San Diego’s Scott Lewis and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña have written about some of the tax measures, so I wanted to take a closer look at two that are entwined in a death match.
The “Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act,” would tighten requirements to increase state and local taxes. It’s also referred to as the “Business Roundtable proposition,” and by various numbers and acronyms. But the upshot is that it would impose new requirements for government agencies to collect taxes, through restrictions that Kousser called “Prop. 13 on steroids.”
“Californians are overtaxed,” the initiative states, saying that contributes to the state’s cost-of-living crisis, poverty and homelessness.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and others filed an emergency petition with the California Supreme Court to kick the taxpayer initiative off the ballot last fall. And the LA Times reports that Newsom and Democratic leaders plan to to rebrand it as a “Taxpayer Deception Act,” arguing that it would gut essential state services.
Under current law, raising state taxes requires a two-thirds vote by the legislature. The measure would add another layer of approval by also requiring a simple majority of voters – more than 50 percent – to OK any state tax hike. It would also set stricter rules for what can be considered a fee – and therefore imposed unilaterally by the government – versus a tax subject to voter approval.
Perhaps its biggest impact would be to raise the threshold for local taxes, mandating that local governments can’t impose any special tax increases without getting approval from two-thirds of voters. It would invalidate any tax measures passed after 2022 that didn’t meet that standard. The measure could also scuttle upcoming San Diego measures including a potential city stormwater package aimed at reducing flood risks. Our Tigist Layne reports that two North County cities are also weighing tax measures, so those could be affected as well.
That’s where another proposition, AC 13, introduced by Assemblymember Chris Ward, D-San Diego, comes in. It would amend the state Constitution, so an initiative to increase the percentage of votes required for any other measure must get the same percentage of votes itself. That means the proposition to enforce a two-thirds supermajority for tax increases would also need a two-thirds vote to pass.
“All it says is that for you to pass you have to meet the same threshold you’re proposing,” Ward said.
What happens if they both pass by a simple majority? According to Ward, AC 13 would invalidate the taxpayer initiative, since his measure contains language specifying that its conditions apply to any statewide measures on the ballot or after Jan. 1, 2024.
Authors of the taxpayer initiative apparently anticipated such a counter-offensive. They included language stating that any other state measures regarding the adoption of taxes would be deemed to be in conflict with their measure. In that case, they say, the measure with the greater number of votes would win, rendering the competing measure “null and void.”
Ward took issue with that interpretation, saying that his initiative would govern the taxpayer initiative, not conflict with it.
If both measures pass, election law experts say, they’re likely to battle it out in court.
Politicians Try to Mop up Sewage Mess
Recent investigations by Voice’s MacKenzie Elmer have revealed how the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment plant runs like a massive, industrial version of a leaky beach bathroom, seeping noxious goop.
This week she got some hopeful news, reporting that Congress will spend another $103 million to fix the failing sewage plant.
The legislature is also taking up the issue. Two bills by state Sen. Steve Padilla, D-San Diego, aim to cut out solid waste before it reaches the beach.
SB 1178, introduced March 18, would require public water agencies to report any sewage spills that could impact water quality. They would have to clean up the contamination themselves, or pay for the State Water Resources Control Board to do it.
Another bill, SB 1208, introduced last month, would prohibit a regional water board from issuing discharge permits for new landfills located within the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve or near a tributary to the Tijuana River, which have been sources of pollution to San Diego beaches.
Also on the environmental front: An adorable but imperiled owl is getting a shot at state protection, after a coalition of environmental groups proposed listing five populations of the burrowing owl under the California Endangered Species Act this month.
Burrowing owls are small, ground-dwelling birds that live, as their name suggests, in underground dens, including some in East County communities such as Jamul and the Ramona Grasslands. Wildlife researchers with the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Habitat Conservancy have bred the little owls in captivity and reintroduced them to those areas.
Their big yellow eyes and endearing antics make them fun to watch, but you’ll have a hard time finding them. They’re vanishing here, and in other parts of the state.
But not in the Imperial Valley, where burrowing owls living in agricultural fields make up 70 percent of the state population, according to Audubon.
That created a conundrum for the owls’ defenders, who tried to list the species more than 20 years ago. That failed because they weren’t at risk everywhere, but dying out in many places.
Burrowing owls continued to decline, but court precedent since then has determined that local populations can be listed as endangered even if the entire species is not – giving conservation groups a chance to try again.
The Sacramento Report runs every Friday and is part of a partnership with CalMatters. Do you have tips, ideas or questions? Send them to me at deborah@voiceofsandiego.org.