There are 10 ballot measures up for vote in California, and several focus on infrastructure: specifically, how to pay for it. Two propositions ask voters to approve major bond spending, while another would change the threshold for passing local bonds.
Many California students are learning in schools with leaky roofs and lead and asbestos contamination. Record wildfires have burned millions of acres and killed hundreds of people in recent decades. And failed stormwater systems led to catastrophic flooding in San Diego last winter. This year’s ballot measures will play a major role in how government officials plan to fix those failing systems.
There Are Two Blockbuster Bond Measures
Proposition 2 would authorize the state to issue $10 billion in state bonds for school construction and modernization. Most of that – $8.5 billion – would go to K-12 schools. Another $1.5 billion is committed to community colleges. Priorities include removing lead, upgrading seismic safety, adding air conditioning and broadband access, and building career technical facilities.
The California Teachers Association and Community College League of California say the measure is desperately needed to improve deteriorating schools. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association warns it will burden taxpayers for decades to come. And some small districts say the funding formula favors big, urban districts. You can read more about this bond measure in a previous Sacramento Report.
Proposition 4 would authorize another $10 billion in bonds to reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. It would fund environmental improvements including water projects, wildfire prevention, and protection of communities and lands.
The biggest chunk – $3.8 billion – would pay to clean up drinking water and natural waterways. About 1 million Californians lack safe drinking water, the measure states, and more than half the state’s rivers and streams are polluted. The bonds would help build new facilities for water recycling, stormwater capture and desalination of brackish water: all ways of expanding California’s existing water system.
The measure also pledges $1.95 billion to cover wildfire prevention, as climate-driven heat and drought have fueled the deadliest and most destructive wildfires on record. Another $1.9 billion would protect parks and wildlife. The rest would protect coastal areas, jump-start clean energy and support agriculture.
Proponents say the money is needed now because Gov. Gavin Newsom scaled back spending on climate response amid a state budget deficit. The bond measure would fill that gap.
Its detractors, including state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-San Diego, say drinking water and fire prevention are essential services that should be covered by the general fund, not through bond debt. They also argue the bond measure would pay for novel technologies instead of basic infrastructure upgrades.
Another Ballot Measure Is a Game-Changer for Local Public Works
Proposition 5 would alter the way cities and counties can float bonds for public work projects such as affordable housing, roads, water projects and fire protection.
If it passes, local governments will be able to issue bonds for infrastructure projects with 55 percent of the vote, instead of the two-thirds supermajority needed now.
This one has a complicated backstory. The version on the ballot now only covers bonds paid with property taxes. An earlier version would have also applied the lower voting threshold to parcel taxes and sales taxes. In other words, it would have let local governments pass pretty much any kind of special tax with 55 percent voter support.
That broader version met blowback from business groups. They backed a separate measure that would have made it harder to pass tax increases. It qualified for the ballot, but was thrown out by the state Supreme Court in June.
Around the same time the state legislature amended its original proposal and limited the 55 percent threshold to property taxes only.
The upshot is that the ballot measure will make it easier to pass new local taxes if it passes, but not as easy as some people hoped. Afterward the city of San Diego withdrew a ballot measure that would have raised millions of dollars to upgrade the city’s crumbling stormwater system, by taxing portions of paved land.
You can learn more about this year’s ballot measures at Voice of San Diego’s Politifest on Sept. 28. I’ll be presenting a session on all the propositions with my CalMatters colleague Wendy Fry. And there will be separate sessions on Proposition 5 and the anti-crime measure Proposition 36. Hope to see you there!
More Campaign Complaints Against Carl DeMaio
The dog fight for the 75th Assembly seat took another contentious turn with new campaign finance accusations against Republican candidate Carl DeMaio, our Tigist Layne reports. Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, alleged that DeMaio misused money from his Reform California Ballot Measure Committee and improperly used funds from the Reform California Voter Guide to help with his own campaign costs. It’s not the first time he allegedly pushed the limits on campaign finance. Earlier this year an attorney for his opponent, fellow Republican Andrew Hayes, complained to the FCC that DeMaio accepted campaign contributions over legal limits, and blew past a voluntary spending cap by nearly $300,000.
Cities Take Up Charge on Statewide Camping Ban
A statewide order to clear homeless encampments from public places has made sweeping changes to local homeless policies, with half a dozen cities in San Diego county moving toward aggressive enforcement, our Jim Hinch writes. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the order in late July, and cities swiftly took up the charge. San Diego had an existing camping ban, and Escondido, Poway, Vista and San Marcos followed suit. National City, Chula Vista and Carlsbad are now poised to adopt their own plans. Homeless advocates say the camping bans abandon social service outreach in favor of crackdowns. But Newsom says he’s given cities more than enough time and money to come up with local solutions. Cal Matters reports that he’s threatening to pull back funding for cities that don’t perform: “I’m going to fund success and I’m not going to fund the rhetoric of failure anymore.”
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.