California Proposition 144, New Prison Construction Bond Measure (1990)

California Proposition 144
Election date November 6, 1990
Topic Bond issues and Prisons
Status d Defeated
Type Bond issue	Origin State Legislature

California Proposition 144 was on the ballot as a bond issue in California on November 6, 1990. It was defeated.

A "yes" vote supported authorizing the state to issue $450 million in bonds to fund the construction of new prisons and Youth Authority facilities in the state to address overcrowding.

A "no" vote opposed authorizing the state to issue $450 million in bonds to fund the construction of new prisons and Youth Authority facilities in the state to address overcrowding.

Election results

California Proposition 144
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		2,871,183	40.38%
No		4,239,091	59.62%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for Proposition 144 was as follows:

“

New Prison Construction Bond Act of 1990-B

”

Ballot summary

The ballot summary for this measure was:

“

This act provides for a bond issue of four hundred fifty million dollars ($450,000,000) to provide funds to relieve overcrowding in the state's prison and Youth Authority facilities through new construction

”

Full Text

The full text of this measure is available here.

Fiscal impact

The fiscal estimate provided by the California Legislative Analyst's Office said:

“

Direct Cost of Paying Off the Bonds. For these types of bonds, the state typically would make principal and interest payments from the state's General Fund over a period of about 20 years. If all of the bonds authorized by this measure are sold at an interest rate of 7.5 percent, the cost would be about $805 million to pay off the principal ($450 million) and interest ($355 million). The average annual payment would be about $34 million per year. Cost to Operate New Prisons. The state will incur additional costs to operate new prisons constructed with these bond funds. These additional costs are unknown, but could be in the tens of millions of dollars annually.

”

Path to the ballot

See also: Signature requirements for ballot measures in California

A simple majority vote was needed in each chamber of the California State Legislature to refer the measure to the ballot for voter consideration.

See also

1990 Measures

• 1990 Measures
• Prison and jail funding on the ballot
• Bond issues on the ballot
• 1990 legislative sessions

California

• California ballot measures
• California ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• California Voter Guide (November 1990)