2018 California Ballot Propositions Megathred

[Coastal Elitist]

Since there are usually so many ballot propositions in California I thought it would be a good idea to create a megathred to talk about them. Right now there are 5 propositions on the ballot for June and 1 for November. There are two propositions awaiting final signature verification. Ten propositions have collected 25% of signatures and there are a lot currently gathering signatures.

Updated: 6/26/2018

November 6, 2018
Will be on the ballot:
Housing Loans, Grants, and Programs and Veterans' Loans Bond: Issues $4 billion in bonds for housing programs and veterans' home loans

Water Infrastructure and Watershed Conservation Bond: Issues $8.877 billion in bonds for water-related infrastructure and environmental projects

Proposition 13 Tax Transfer Initiative: Revises process for homebuyers who are age 55 or older or severely disabled to transfer their tax assessments

Limits on Charges for Dialysis Initiative: Requires dialysis clinics to issue refunds for revenue above a certain amount

Three States Initiative: Asks government to divide California into three states

Voter Approval for Gas and Vehicle Tax Initiative: Repeals 2017's fuel tax and vehicle fee increases and requires public vote on future increases

Local Rent Control Initiative: Allows local governments to regulate rent

Farm Animal Confinement Initiative: Bans sale of meat from animals confined in spaces below specific sizes

Consumer Personal Information Disclosure and Sale Initiative: Allow consumers to prohibit businesses from selling on disclosing their personal information

Emergency Ambulance Employee Standards Initiative: Allow ambulance providers to require workers to remain on-call during breaks paid

Home and School Remediation Bond Initiative: Issues $2 billion in bonds for remidiation and declares that lead paint is not a public nuisance

Children's Hospital Bonds Initiative: Issues $1.5 billion in bonds for children's hospitals



Signatures submitted


Two-thirds vote for State and Local Revenue Increases Initative: (950,208 signatures: 585,407 need to be valid)

Violent Crime Definition, DNA Collection, and Parole Initiative: (548,270 signatures: 365,880 need to be valid)

25% of signatures reached:

Tax on Incomes Exceeding $1 Million for Hospitals, Health Clinics, and Workforce Training Initiative: (deadline: July 17, 2018)

Recently failed to make the ballot:
Use of Voter-Approved Bond and Tax Revenue Initiative

There are another 5 propositions gathering signatures, a full list can be found here: https://ballotpedia.org/California_2018_ballot_propositions

I will update this post for the most recent information until the election

[bagelman]

What's the point of Prop 70? Sounds like a conservative effort to lock up the money from cap&trade to inconvenience big spenders.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

What's the point of Prop 70? Sounds like a conservative effort to lock up the money from cap&trade to inconvenience big spenders.

It is. Republicans, NIMBYs, and progressives who love pissing anyone with wealth off want to use it to shut down metro rail and high speed rail construction. Hopefully it will lose, but it is an off-election. Measure S's defeat in LA last year shows some promising signs, however.

Ideologically, I am oppossed to all ballot measures as a way of making law.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Ok lol what on earth is that Neighborhood Districts one?

[Coastal Elitist]

Ok lol what on earth is that Neighborhood Districts one?

It was to expand the state legislature, but it just failed to make the ballot.

[Coastal Elitist]

The Proposition 13 Tax Transfer Initiative is currently awaiting signature verification. About one million signatures have been submitted and only 585,407 need to be valid for this to make the ballot.

This proposition limits the property tax increases that homeowners 55 and over would face when moving to a new home, while granting the same protections to disabled homeowners or people whose homes have been destroyed by a natural disaster.

Full summary:
Removes the following current requirements for homeowners who are over 55 years old or severely disabled to transfer their property tax base to a replacement residence: that replacement property be of equal or lesser value, replacement residence be in specific county, and the transfer occur only once. Removes similar replacement-value and location requirements on transfers for contaminated or disaster-destroyed property. Requires adjustments to the replacement property’s tax base, based on the new property’s value

[Tintrlvr]

I guess that's supposed to solve some of the problems created by the original Prop 13 by making it less of a huge tax increase for seniors to move (thus perhaps optimistically creating more churn in the housing market but more likely just subsidizing wealthy old people more).

[Sestak]

What's the point of Prop 70? Sounds like a conservative effort to lock up the money from cap&trade to inconvenience big spenders.

It is. Republicans, NIMBYs, and progressives who love pissing anyone with wealth off want to use it to shut down metro rail and high speed rail construction. Hopefully it will lose, but it is an off-election. Measure S's defeat in LA last year shows some promising signs, however.

Ideologically, I am oppossed to all ballot measures as a way of making law.

Honestly, I do have a bit of a NIMBY issue when it comes to high speed rail and property devaluation, so...

[Coastal Elitist]

A ballot initiative that would separate California into three states has reported gathering over 600,000 signatures. They only need 365,880 to be valid to make the ballot. Even if this passed the state legislature and Congress would need to approve it.

https://www.upi.com/https:/www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/04/13/California-could-vote-on-separating-into-3-states-in-November/7421523592013/

[America Needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

A ballot initiative that would separate California into three states has reported gathering over 600,000 signatures. They only need 365,880 to be valid to make the ballot. Even if this passed the state legislature and Congress would need to approve it.

https://www.upi.com/https:/www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/04/13/California-could-vote-on-separating-into-3-states-in-November/7421523592013/

SoCal would have voted for Romney/Clinton.
The other 2 would have voted for Obama/Clinton.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

I strongly approve of splitting Cali into 3 states.

[Bidenworth2020]

I strongly approve of splitting Cali into 3 states.

why?

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

4 more Democratic senators? Cool!

[Coastal Elitist]

I strongly approve of splitting Cali into 3 states.

why?

I think he's trolling as Roy Moore.

[America Needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

4 more Democratic senators? Cool!

According to kevinhayeswilson, Mitt Romney won the proposed SoCal by 69235 votes (could be off quite a bit though since they use incomplete vote totals). So the Senators there would be competitive.

Though Hillary Clinton won it by 311780 votes according to kevinhayeswilson.

[America Needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

So I recalculated using uselectionatlas totals, and it turns out Obama did win SoCal narrowly.

97074 votes in 2008
26701 votes in 2012

However, Hillary Clinton won it in 2016 by a much more decisive 454979 votes.

[Skill and Chance]

So I recalculated using uselectionatlas totals, and it turns out Obama did win SoCal narrowly.

97074 votes in 2008
26701 votes in 2012

However, Hillary Clinton won it in 2016 by a much more decisive 454979 votes.

Hmmm.... I think something like a NorCal/SoCal/EastCal split where EastCal has at least 10 EV could be approved if it were paired with a North Texas/East Texas/South Texas split, with Austin drawn into South Texas.

[Coastal Elitist]

So I recalculated using uselectionatlas totals, and it turns out Obama did win SoCal narrowly.

97074 votes in 2008
26701 votes in 2012

However, Hillary Clinton won it in 2016 by a much more decisive 454979 votes.

Also at the state level Kashkari would have won it in 2014 by 145,482 votes and in 2010 Whitman would have won it by 348,636

[Dr. MB]

I hate ballot initiatives. I’m suppose to elect people to think for me on this stuff.

Just skip them then.

I can’t wait for the day we have nationwide referendums.

[Coastal Elitist]

The Voter Approval for Gas and Vehicle Tax Initiative has submitted over 940,000 signatures and the Local Rent Control Initiative has submitted more than 565,000 signatures. Both will most likely make the ballot.

Also the Water Infrastructure and Watershed Conservation Bond has officially qualified for the November election.

While I can't find official confirmation it appears that an initiative to legalize shrooms has failed to meet the signature deadline.

[Virginiá]

The Voter Approval for Gas and Vehicle Tax Initiative has submitted over 940,000 signatures and the Local Rent Control Initiative has submitted more than 565,000 signatures. Both will most likely make the ballot.

[...]

I have to admit, this is really aggravating, and not because I'm exactly in love with taxes or some of the new fees Cali instituted. It already takes a 2/3rd majority to pass new taxes in CA, and now they want to require voter approval for new gas/vehicle taxes? Why are the goalposts always being moved with this? Requiring a super-majority is already a big deal, why is that not enough? It's not smart to hamstring the legislature in terms of raising revenue. It's one thing to require more than a majority, but another to require voter approval. That may make it difficult to change taxes in the future, and it'll be a constant battle, even if the state is facing a funding crisis. You can't always rely on the voters to approve changes to tax law even when it makes sense.

Democrats ought to keep the super-majority requirement as a compromise but just put an amendment on the ballot to disallow initiatives that block restrictions on new taxes every election until it passes. If voters or special interest groups have a problem with a particular tax increase, they can do a veto referendum instead. That and the super-majority stuff is a reasonable fallback option for the people. But these initiatives meant to tie the legislature's hands with taxes are bad ideas.

[Sestak]

I hate ballot initiatives. I’m suppose to elect people to think for me on this stuff.

Just skip them then.

I can’t wait for the day we have nationwide referendums.

That would be a disaster and would encourage even more laziness from the legislature than we have now. Instead of trying to genuinely solve nuanced, complex issues, they'd just punt it to the voters using ridiculously oversimplified campaign slogans. No one would ever try to amend or modify a proposal to make it more acceptable; they'd just rely on rhetoric and take an "all or nothing" stance.

I'm surprised that you think this being a civil libertarian and all. Binding referenda using disingenuous naming and promotion is almost guaranteed to not only impose many limits on civil liberties but also give those limits a sense of legitimacy.

[Dr. MB]

I hate ballot initiatives. I’m suppose to elect people to think for me on this stuff.

Just skip them then.

I can’t wait for the day we have nationwide referendums.

That would be a disaster and would encourage even more laziness from the legislature than we have now. Instead of trying to genuinely solve nuanced, complex issues, they'd just punt it to the voters using ridiculously oversimplified campaign slogans. No one would ever try to amend or modify a proposal to make it more acceptable; they'd just rely on rhetoric and take an "all or nothing" stance.

I'm surprised that you think this being a civil libertarian and all. Binding referenda using disingenuous naming and promotion is almost guaranteed to not only impose many limits on civil liberties but also give those limits a sense of legitimacy.

Mike Gravel supports a very similar system.

And for reference, I don’t think a simple 50% majority should be enough to pass a referendum. The threshold should be 55 or 60%.

And I’d support referenda on a limited scope of issues - federal tax increases, etc. and not defense or national security issues.

[henster]

Honestly they should have gone with the gas tax to the ballot in the first place, if voters want to ride on crappy roads then let them decide for themselves. Infrastructure spending always polls high yet nobody wants to raise the gas tax. Seems like going to the ballot on tax increases is the best route for everybody involved.

[Coastal Elitist]

The Proposition 13 Tax Transfer Initiative has qualified for the ballot.

Multiple initiatives have submitted signatures for counting:
Emergency Ambulance Employee Standards Initiative
Farm Animal Confinement Initiative
Consumer Personal Information Disclosure and Sale Initiative
Home and School Remediation Bond and Remove Status of Lead Paint as Public Nuisance Initiative
Two-Thirds Vote for State and Local Revenue Increases Initiative
Consumer Personal Information Disclosure and Sale Initiative

It looks like these will probably all qualify for November since they only need about 60-65% of signatures to be valid.