The ten measures on your California ballot have been largely overshadowed by the presidential race and mayoral race (or recall, if you're in Oakland), so here’s a quick preview of the minimum wage, rent control, and crime sentencing proposals the state will vote on tomorrow.
Have you voted yet? About 36% of SF voters have already voted, according to the latest SF Department of Elections data. For the other 64% of you out there who have not voted, you may have not yet given much thought to the ten statewide California ballot measures you’ll be voting on, considering your election season headlines have been dominated by the presidential election, the SF mayor’s race, or in Oakland, the mayoral recall.
Some of these California ballot measures are quite significant! Others, well, are evidence that California just has way too many ballot measures every election. Either way, here are the ten statewide proposals on your November 5 California ballot.
Prop 2 - $10 Billion Bond Measure for Public Schools and Community Colleges
This is a standard school bond, proposing $10 billion to fix up the estimated 38% of California public schools that do not meet minimum safety standards. Critics complain the bond bill comes with billions of dollars worth of interest payments.
Prop 3 - Constitutional Right to Same-Sex Marriage
We’ve already done some analysis of the Prop 3 same-sex marriage bill, which would enshrine the right to gay marriage in the state constitution, just in case a somehow even Trump-ier US Supreme Court decides to strike down that right at the national level.
Prop 4 - $10 Billion Bond Measure for Safe Drinking Water and Climate Change Impacts
This bond measure would borrow $1.9 billion to improve the state’s drinking water, plus billions more dollars for efforts to mitigate the effects of floods, droughts, wildfires, and rising sea levels. But again, critics point out that the bond comes with billions in extra interest payments.
Prop 5 - Lowers the Two-Thirds Majority Required for Affordable Housing Bonds to 55%
California cities that put bond measures on their ballot currently need a two-thirds majority (66%) to pass those bond measures. Prop 5 would lower that so the cities only needed 55% majorities for bond measures, but only if those bond measures support affordable housing and public infrastructure.
Prop 6 - Eliminates Forced Labor in State Prisons
Some 40,000 California prisoners are forced into work as firefighters, construction workers, or various other forms of labor, sometimes for as little as 74 cents an hour. Prop 6 would remove prisons’ ability to force prisoners into such “involuntary servitude” arrangements, and would remove the facilities’ right to discipline prisoners who refuse the assignments.
Prop 32 - Raises the State Minimum Wage to $18
The California minimum wage is currently $16, Prop 32, if passed, would raise that to $17 in 2025, and then to $18 in 2026. That would give California the highest minimum wage in the nation.
Prop 33 - Expands Rent Control
We’ve previously discussed in detail the Prop 33 rent control measure that could expand rent control statewide in California, or rather, give cities the option to expand rent control however they please. SF Supervisor Aaron Peskin has already passed a measure that would extend rent control in San Francisco to all buildings built before 1994 should Prop 33 pass statewide.
Prop 34 - Requires Health Care Providers to Spend Revenue on Prescription Drugs and Patients
This measure is basically just going after the notorious AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles, which spends a great deal of their money on politicking instead of AIDS patient care, so Prop 34 would rein in their ability to do that.
Prop 35 - Makes the Currently Temporary Medi-Cal Tax Permanent
About one-third of California residents use the low-income healthcare system Medi-Cal, but one of the healthcare plan taxes used to fund the program expires in 2026. Prop 35 would make that tax permanent.
Prop 36 - Felony Charges for Drug and Theft Crimes
California famously/infamously treats thefts of under $950 as misdemeanors, thanks to 2014’s Prop 47, which many have blamed for increases in crime. Prop 36 would to some degree undo that Prop 47, and would allow felony charges on certain types of theft and drug crimes
And hey, what do you know, there’s no dialysis measure or sports gambling measure on the California ballot this year! But they’ll likely be back at it next cycle.
Image: Joe Kukura, SFist
