The Assembly has passed a proposed state constitutional amendment that would make it easier to pass certain local tax measures. The amendment, ACA 1, is up for a vote in the Senate on Thursday.
Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, is listed as a principal co-author of ACA 1. State Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, has yet to vote on ACA 1. Becker’s office told the Post yesterday that he will vote for the bill.
ACA 1 would lower the two-thirds threshold needed to pass local bonds and special taxes to 55%.
ACA 1 passed the Assembly last week with a 55-12 vote and now goes to the Senate. Both Berman and Assemblywoman Diane Papan, D-San Mateo, voted for the bill. If it receives at least 27 votes in the 40-member chamber, it will be placed on the ballot in 2024 and a majority vote in a statewide election will determine its fate.
ACA 1 is supported by unions and the League of California Cities, whose members want voters to approve new housing and infrastructure projects.
Battle of the proposed propositions
In related news, the Assembly has approved a second constitutional amendment, ACA 13, to combat a ballot proposal involving tax measures. Berman and Papan also voted in favor of that amendment. ACA 13 also goes to the Senate for a vote tomorrow. Becker has said he will vote in favor of ACA 13.
If approved, it goes to the voters next year.
ACA 13 is in response to the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, a ballot proposition sponsored by a business coalition that has qualified for the ballot next year.
When the accountability act qualified for the ballot, it drew the attention of Democratic leaders. The act would require all new taxes passed by the Legislature to go to the voters; restore the two-thirds voter approval for all new local special tax increases; requires truthful descriptions of new tax proposals; and mandates those proposing new taxes to identify how the revenue will be spent, eliminating the bait-and-switch phenomenon common in ballot measures.
In response, Democrats including Berman proposed ACA 13. Under ACA 13, taxes proposed by the Legislature would only need a majority threshold of votes to pass in an election. But citizens’ initiative constitutional amendments — such as Prop. 13 in 1978 — would continue to need two-thirds of the vote to pass.
Different rules
The California Business Roundtable issued a letter opposing ACA 13, stating that it only affects measures placed on the ballot by signature gatherers, not the Legislature. In effect, ACA 13 creates one set of rules for tax proposals from the Legislature and another set for tax opponents. By the Daily Post staff
I think Californians should be able to raise taxes by a vote of only 25%. That way businesses will move out faster and people paying the rest of the taxes will follow. Soon all there will be is the mentally ill and illegal aliens receiving cash and prizes from the government.
Great idea! I hope the Democrat state majority and leftist local residents get everything they want – from higher taxes and bans on all things carbon to another round of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders – as the state quickly collapses into a totalitarian mess.
I just wish there was a way the other states did not have to absorb the California refugees and their voting patterns.
Just another money grab Just like the speeding cameras that will be implemented always coming after the little people because Berman knows the money will not come from the rich but from the masses.