GET READY TO VOTE

• What’s at stake
• Understanding Prop. 43
• What supporters say
• What opponents say
• Fiscal impact
• Campaign financing 
• Read more

Proposition 43 would make it harder to create or raise certain local taxes. It would raise the share of votes needed to pass local special tax measures proposed by citizens from a simple majority to two-thirds. The measure grew out of a deal between state lawmakers and the anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to keep a more restrictive tax proposal off the ballot.

What’s at stake

A two-thirds vote is already required for special taxes proposed by local governments, but not for those proposed by individual citizens. Prop. 43 would close that gap and apply the higher bar to citizen-led initiatives as well. That could affect how communities pay for local services through voter-approved taxes.

Official title on the ballot: Limits Voters’ Ability to Raise Revenues for Local Government Services. Legislative Constitutional Amendment.

Language you will see:

Understanding Prop. 43

Special taxes are ones levied for a specific purpose, such as affordable housing or public transportation, while general taxes go into a city’s general fund and can be used for any city program or service. General taxes only require a simple majority to pass, regardless of who places them on the ballot.

But special taxes placed on the ballot by a local government must meet the two-thirds approval threshold. For a long time, it was assumed that special taxes from citizen-led initiatives had to meet this higher mark. That changed in 2017, and now these initiatives only need to win over 50% of the vote.

Since then, municipalities have passed over two dozen of these initiatives with support below the two-thirds mark, according to previous reporting by CalMatters. In Los Angeles, the most high-profile recent example is Measure ULA, also known as the “mansion tax,” which passed in 2022 with 57.77% of the vote.

What supporters say

Anti-tax advocates have pushed for similar policies for years. They argue that special interest groups have taken advantage of the simple-majority threshold to pass special taxes in low-turnout elections.

Notable supporters: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Reform California and the Southern California News Group editorial board

What opponents say

Opponents argue the measure would limit communities’ ability to raise needed money for local services. They also say it would make it easier for wealthy interests to block tax measures that most voters support.

Notable opponents: California Democratic Party, SEIU Local 1000 and The Sacramento Bee editorial board

Fiscal impact

Because Prop. 43 would make it more difficult to pass certain taxes, local governments’ tax revenues “could be lower in the future than they otherwise would be,” according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, which says the precise impact would “depend on future decisions by local governments and voters.”

Campaign financing 

Read more

• Prop. 43 would make it harder to raise local taxes. Can it pass? (KQED)
• Why opponents of Prop. 43 say it would cripple local funding (KQED)
• 5 tax measures are on the California ballot. Here’s how to make sense of them all (CalMatters)
• Los Angeles Proposition TE: What to know about suspending the ‘mansion tax’ for fire victims (LAist)
  

This article combines reporting from LAist partner newsroom CalMatters and LAist reporter Erin Rode. The guide to Prop. 43 was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.