California voters to decide on bonds and special taxes passage requirement

On a regular basis, well over half of all voters in California locales approve questions to tap bonds to cover projects that include road and bridge work. Despite the majority approval, many of the questions fall short of the percentage required for passage.

Voters throughout California will decide next fall whether to amend the state constitution to ease the threshold for passage of certain local ballot questions.

Constitutional requirement

The California Constitution states that taxes local governments levy are either general taxes or special taxes, which local agencies use for specified purposes. A two-thirds vote is required at the local level for general obligation bonds and special taxes. The state defines a special tax as any tax imposed to specific purposes.

On the other hand, general tax votes require a simple majority for passage. In California, a general tax is defined as any tax imposed for general governmental purposes.

Additionally, the state requires a two-thirds vote of each legislative chamber for state tax increases.

Change coming?

California lawmakers have acted to approve sending a proposed constitutional amendment to voters to address the requirement for passage of general obligation bonds and special taxes.

Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 would lower the two-thirds supermajority constitutional vote threshold to 55% for local general obligation bonds and special taxes, when proposed specifically for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation or replacement of public infrastructure in a city, county or special district. Improvement to transit and streets and highways is included in the public infrastructure classification.

Majority vote failures

Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, wrote in a fact sheet for ACA 1 that over a recent 13-year period, just half of all local revenue measures that required two-thirds vote were successful.

In 2016, votes in Placer, Sacramento, San Francisco and San Luis Obispo counties each exceeded 64% approval but fell shy of the 66.67% threshold for passage.

The San Luis Obispo County question asked voters whether to approve a nine-year, half-percent sales tax to fix potholes; repave local streets; relieve traffic congestion; improve street, highway and bridge safety; and make bike and transit improvements. The failed question received 66.31% voter approval.

More recently, 58% of voters in Fresno County last year were in favor of renewing the county’s half-cent transportation tax for 30 years. The plan largely focused on addressing road and bridge work.

Aguiar-Curry noted that the success rate for these measures and other special taxes and bonds would jump to nearly 80% with a 55% approval threshold.

“One of the shortcomings of current constitutional supermajority vote thresholds is they take away the ability of local officials, especially in small cities and rural areas like mine, to work with their voters to make investments in local infrastructure priorities,” she said in prepared remarks.

As a result, she added, “Sacramento is forced to do huge statewide initiatives, and those same communities often don’t benefit from them.”

“My constituents are paying for housing, roads and police and fire stations in large metropolitan areas and can’t even pass their own bonds and sales taxes to fund their local priorities,” she said.

Critics argue reducing the two-thirds vote threshold for approval of affected questions would diminish the people’s voice on tax increases and would erode property tax safeguards. LL

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