San Francisco Chronicle
nitiative promoter Tim Eyman filed a ballot measure Wednesday to make all tax hikes passed by the Washington state Legislature expire after a year.
Under the initiative, the one-year limit would go away if state lawmakers pass a constitutional amendment to require a legislative supermajority to raise taxes and eliminate tax breaks. If passed by the Legislature by a two-thirds majority in each chamber, the amendment would need a simple majority of voters to be enacted.
Ballot initiatives that result in new spending for the state - a practice derided by some as “ballot box budgeting” - would have to include a source of funding under a bill that passed its first legislative hurdle at the Capitol on Tuesday. The measure, a constitutional amendment that would have to go before voters if approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor, would mark a major change in California’s unique brand of direct democracy that was brought to the state by Hiram Johnson 100 years ago.
A week after Lance Armstrong announced his retirement from competitive cycling, the seven-time Tour de France winner is coming to California today on a political tour - to push for a ballot initiative that would add $1 a pack to cigarettes to raise money for cancer research. “Cancer doesn’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, young or old,” Armstrong said in an interview.
Menlo Park might seem like a sleepy bedroom community tucked between San Jose and San Francisco, but behind the facade of tree-lined streets, pension payouts are threatening to cripple the municipal government. This is why Roy Thiele-Sardina, a local entrepreneur and venture capitalist, pushed for the inclusion of the Menlo Park Pension Reform Initiative on November’s ballot and its eventual passage.
California lawmakers must stop putting their own one-sided titles on ballot measures they sponsor and instead must allow the state attorney general to write impartial descriptions, an appeals court said Thursday in a case that could affect future votes on taxes and water.
Two times in recent years San Francisco voters have backed measures to harness skyrocketing pension costs for future city employees. Now a third proposal is in the works that for the first time would affect workers already on the payroll - a politically risky proposition in a notoriously pro-labor town.
A measure that would require Marin officials to get residents’ approval before moving forward with plans for a desalination plant has qualified for the November ballot. Melvin Briones, assistant registrar of voters for Marin County, said on Friday the measure had received about 15,500 signatures, more than the 11,068 it needed to make the ballot.
California voters defeated a measure Tuesday that would have changed state law to allow insurance companies to raise rates on drivers who let their coverage lapse while allowing insurers to award discounts to those who maintain continuous coverage. Supporters of Proposition 17 said the ballot initiative, sponsored mainly by Mercury Insurance, would lead to more competition and better rates for consumers who take advantage of “continuous coverage” discounts by sticking with insurers.
Talk about murky. The economic impact, the potential social and legal landscape, even the split between the pro and con sides in the squabble over the initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot to legalize marijuana for recreational use in California - they’re all about as clear as smoke from a bong. Most medicinal-marijuana advocates think it would be just fine if good-time tokers joined their legal crowd. Others worry it might ruin the purity of using pot as medicine.
The Oakland City Council voted Thursday night to begin the process of placing an $18.2 million public safety parcel tax on the November ballot, though it remains unclear if it will resolve the city’s burgeoning fiscal crisis. The ballot measure to pay police officers’ salaries, which the council would have to approve by July 20, in combination with a separate $2.4 million utility tax, would halve the $42.6 million budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year. But it would do little to stop the ballooning costs of pensions and health care that threaten to swamp the city budget.
A proposed ballot initiative to create a part-time Legislature has failed to make it on the November ballot. Backers say they were unable to raise the money to collect the necessary signatures by a Monday deadline. The plan becomes the third proposed ballot measure aimed at changing how state government operates that has failed to qualify. Two other proposals, one to call a constitutional convention and another to make specific changes in state governance, were suspended because of a lack of funding.
Lawyers for the Nevada Mining Association are going before a judge in Carson City to try to block a ballot petition drive aimed at raising taxes on the mining industry. District Judge James Wilson scheduled a 2 p.m. hearing Friday on the bid to keep the initiative off the ballot this fall based on claims it’s unconstitutional.
A June ballot measure to change California’s primary elections would eliminate write-in candidates in general elections and, opponents say, doom third parties in the state. Under provisions of Proposition 14, all qualifying candidates would be listed on one ballot and voters - regardless of party registration - could vote for any one. Only the top two vote-getters would advance to the general election, even if those two were from the same party.
Under pressure from consumer advocates who say an insurance initiative would raise rates for thousands of state drivers, Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office has submitted new language to describe Proposition 17 on the June ballot. Brown’s new ballot title and summary now say the measure allows insurance companies to raise auto insurance premiums on drivers based on their coverage history, according to documents submitted to the secretary of state’s office.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is abandoning the push to put a measure on the June ballot giving his office more power. Instead he’s turning his attention to the November election, where he hopes to put the strong-mayor proposal before voters.