California voters will set the bar on raising new taxes, lawmakers decide with ballot initiatives

How difficult should it be to raise taxes in California?

Democratic lawmakers late Thursday night passed two constitutional amendments that could have lasting implications on state and local taxation — leaving it to voters to weigh the question through three separate November 2024 ballot measures.

The first measure would make it easier to pass local bonds or taxes for affordable housing and public infrastructure projects.

Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 lowers the threshold needed to pass the bond or tax from a two-thirds supermajority of voters to 55%. The measure would align with the 55% needed for school bonds, which historically have been the most successful funding initiatives across the state.

The second, known as Assembly Constitutional Amendment 13, does not make any direct changes to taxes in California. It was crafted to block a pro-business ballot measure that imposes strict limitations on raising taxes.

The business-backed measure, known as the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, would have mandated a two-thirds vote for all new local special tax increases and require all new taxes passed by lawmakers be approved by the electorate, among other provisions.

Under current state law, such an initiative could be approved in November 2024 with a simple majority of voters.

ACA 13 was meant to counter the anti-tax measure by requiring that any ballot proposal to raise the threshold to a supermajority must also be passed by the same voter threshold. It was originally slated for the March ballot but was moved to November. This means it will no longer effect the anti-tax initiative, since they’ll be decided on in the same election, but it would make similar efforts more difficult to pass in the future.

Assemblyman Christopher Ward, D-San Diego, authored ACA 13 and calls it a “common sense measure” to fix an unbalanced system.

“The broader concern and the reason I’ve introduced this is not because of one particular measure. It’s because we’re seeing a pattern of attempts to abuse our Constitution in a way that benefits special interests,” Ward said.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California Business Roundtable, which are sponsoring the anti-tax measure, adamantly disagreed. Jon Coupal, president of the taxpayers’ group, called ACA 13 an “ambush attack.”

“The language did not exist until a few weeks ago,” Coupal said. “This is a classic jam job.”

Assemblyman Josh Hoover, R-Folsom, cast one of the dissenting votes on Thursday and implored his colleagues to do the same.

“No matter how much higher taxes get in California, it never seems to be enough,” Hoover said. “We continue to pass policies that increase the cost of living in our state and make it more expensive for California families.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2023 at 8:00 AM.