San Jose Mercury News

A plan to charge California motorists $18 a year to shore up the state parks system’s financial troubles took another step toward the November ballot on Monday when environmental groups submitted about 760,000 signatures to the state. Under state law, the campaign needs 433,931 valid signatures of registered California voters to qualify the initiative. Elections officials have until June 24 to certify the measure.

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California lawmakers on Monday endorsed raising the fee to file a ballot initiative, despite concerns that doing so would limit the ability of individuals to put their ideas before voters. The state Assembly voted mostly along partisan lines, 43-22, to raise the filing fee over a six-year period from $200 to $2,000. If the legislation becomes law, it will be the first time the fee is raised since it was imposed in 1943.

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A San Mateo County judge tentatively ruled Thursday that an electronic signature submitted to the county elections office cannot be used to qualify an initiative for the ballot. In his written decision released prior to a court hearing Thursday, Superior Court Judge George Miram ruled against Michael Ni, whose lawsuit sought to force the county clerk to accept a USB drive containing an “e-signature” that he submitted to qualify a statewide ballot measure for legalizing and taxing marijuana.

A backlash against efforts in California and Congress to rein in greenhouse gas emissions is brewing in hard economic times. A coalition of businesses ”” including two Bay Area oil refiners ”” and an anti-tax group has begun a signature drive for a November ballot initiative that would suspend California’s pioneering law to combat global warming until the jobless rate drops back to 2006 levels. Supporters of California’s law, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, say the initiative would cripple the state’s emerging clean energy industry.

Transportation agencies in Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa and other Bay Area counties are considering seeking voter approval to increase auto registration fees by $10 a year to fix potholes, improve transit and fight congestion. Officials believe that the public is so fed up with poor road conditions and bus and rail cuts because of reduced state funding that they may agree to higher fees in economic hard times. A simple majority approval is needed for individual counties to raise the registration fee. Most measures would be on the November ballot.

Proponents of an initiative that would establish Brentwood’s own urban limit line have gathered enough signatures to get the issue on the June ballot. The county elections division confirmed this week that the measure’s backers turned in 5,244 valid signatures, well more than the 3,624 needed to hold a citywide election. Election rules require that petitioners garner the support of at least 15 percent of Brentwood’s registered voters.

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Another effort to mend the state’s political dysfunction, this one advanced by two former Santa Cruz lawmakers, is on the brink of unravelling. Santa Cruz County Treasurer Fred Keeley, a onetime assemblyman, said Tuesday that unless California Forward raises hundreds of thousands more dollars by the end of the week, the reform group will be forced to put off a November ballot measure that seeks to make passing a state budget easier.

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San Mateo County’s elections chief says he is all for technology, but isn’t about to accept the first electronic signature ever submitted to help qualify a California ballot proposition. But hours after Chief Elections Officer Warren Slocum announced Tuesday that he would reject any electronic signature scribbled on an iPhone’s touch screen, the founders of a Silicon Valley start-up company said they would file a lawsuit this week challenging the rejection.

A judge has upheld his previous ruling blocking a ballot initiative that would give Sacramento’s mayor more power. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster on Thursday affirmed his tentative decision to block the strong-mayor initiative from the June ballot. The judge said the initiative process cannot be used to revise the City Charter.

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In an effort led by Milpitas High School sophomore Vicky Tu, student representative of the Milpitas Unified School District’s Board of Education, 50 high school students were randomly selected to participate in a survey responding to revenue that could be generated through a parcel tax. During the Board of Education meeting Jan. 12, Tu shared the results of the survey, which was prepared by the Milpitas High Associated Student Body Parcel Tax Student Survey Committee. Before introducing results, Tu explained briefly why only Milpitas High students were surveyed.

A ballot initiative backed by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson that would give the city’s mayor more power has been blocked by a judge. A Sacramento Superior Court judge on Thursday tentatively granted a request to block Johnson’s strong mayor initiative from the June ballot, saying the initiative process cannot be used to revise the City Charter.

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A state judge in Carson City threw out a proposed ballot initiative Friday that sought to define a person as “everyone possessing a human genome,” saying the language was too vague and violated state law that limits questions to one subject. The Nevada Personhood initiative proposed to amend the state Constitution by defining a person and extending due process rights from the beginning of biological development through end of life.

A state judge in Carson City will hear challenges today to a proposed ballot initiative that seeks to define a person and override Nevada’s abortion laws. The Nevada “personhood” initiative seeks to amend the state constitution by defining a person and extending due process rights to “everyone possessing a human genome” from the beginning of biological development through end of life.

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Want something new to blame for all those arcane initiatives to sort out on Election Day? A new Silicon Valley company launched a smartphone app on Tuesday that promises to get rid of the scroungy-looking guy begging strangers for signatures outside Trader Joe’s by turning your finger into a pen and your iPhone into a political weapon. The company, Verafirma, touts the technology as the ultimate grass-roots tool that would bring a smile to the face of Gov. Hiram Johnson, the California populist who nearly a century ago helped add “initiative, referendum and recall” to the state lexicon.

With a new 49ers stadium at stake, the Santa Clara City Council on Tuesday night endorsed a proposed initiative sponsored by the team to build a $937 million stadium, and put its own ballot measure on hold as it waits to see how the community effort plays out. “To me, this initiative process really puts it to the test,” said Mayor Patricia Mahon. “If one-third of voters want to put it on the ballot, then I find it compelling.”

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