California Two-Thirds Vote for Local Revenue Increases Initiative (2018)

California Two-Thirds Vote for Local Revenue Increases Initiative
Election date November 6, 2018
Topic Taxes and Supermajority requirements
Status Not on the ballot
Type Constitutional amendment	Origin Citizens
List of California measuresCalifornia Proposition 68 - JuneCalifornia Proposition 69 - JuneCalifornia Proposition 70 - JuneCalifornia Proposition 71 - JuneCalifornia Proposition 72 - JuneCalifornia Proposition 1California Proposition 2California Proposition 3California Proposition 4California Proposition 5California Proposition 6California Proposition 7California Proposition 8California Proposition 10California Proposition 11California Proposition 12Submit

The California Two-Thirds Vote for Local Revenue Increases Initiative (#17-0051) was not on the ballot in California as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 6, 2018.

The initiative would have amended Section 2 of Article XIII C—which required that local general and special taxes be approved at the ballot box—to require a two-thirds vote of the electorate for all taxes, including those put on the ballot through an initiative. The initiative would have also required a two-thirds vote of a local government board to submit a tax to voters. Furthermore, the initiative would have required that ballot questions detail how revenue from a tax would be spent in a "separate, stand-alone section containing no other information."

Robert Lapsley proposed Initiative #17-0051 and Initiative #17-0050, which was designed to affect the vote requirement for both state and local revenue generation, not just local.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The official ballot title was as follows:

“

Expands Requirement for Supermajority Approval to Enact New Local Government Revenue Measures. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.

”

Petition summary

The summary provided for inclusion on signature petition sheets was as follows:

“

For local governments, requires two-thirds approval of electorate to raise new taxes or governing body to raise new fees. Requires that local laws enacting new taxes specify how revenues can be spent. Heightens legal threshold for local governments to prove that fees passed without two-thirds voter approval are not taxes. Invalidates local taxes imposed in 2018, unless taxes meet criteria adopted by this measure.

”

Fiscal impact

The fiscal impact statement was as follows:

“

Potentially substantial decrease in annual local revenues, depending upon future actions of local governing bodies, voters, and the courts.

”

Full text

The full text of the measure is as available here.

Path to the ballot

See also: California signature requirements and Laws governing the initiative process in California

In California, the number of signatures needed to qualify a measure for the ballot is based on the total number of votes cast for the office of governor. For an initiated constitutional amendment, petitioners must collect signatures equal to 8 percent of the most recent gubernatorial vote. To get a measure on the 2018 ballot, the number of signatures required was 585,407. In California, initiatives can be circulated for 180 days. Signatures needed to be certified at least 131 days before the 2018 general election, which was around June 28, 2018. As the signature verification process can take several weeks, the California secretary of state issues suggested deadlines for several months before the certification deadline.

The timeline for the initiative is as follows:

• Robert Lapsley submitted a letter requesting a title and summary on November 22, 2017.
• A title and summary were issued by the California attorney general's office on January 26, 2018.
• Proponents of the initiative needed to submit 365,880 valid signatures by July 25, 2018, which is when the initiative was set to expire.

See also

• 2018 ballot measures
• California 2018 ballot propositions
• California ballot measures

External links

• Initiative Petition #17-0051