A number of new tax measures were on Tuesday’s ballot, some successful, some not. But almost all of them employed a legal loophole called a “citizens’ initiative” that made it possible to pass with a simple majority. But that may be changing in November.
In 2022, the tiny town of Crockett passed the Measure L parcel tax to raise $63,000 annually for street lighting and landscape maintenance. It got nearly 63% of the vote, but it only passed because in 2017 the courts ruled that tax measures generated by “citizens,” rather than a government body, only need a simple majority, not the 2/3 vote required by Prop 13.
Since then, just about everyone looking to raise taxes has used a citizens’ group to front the effort. Susan Shelley, with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said the courts essentially re-wrote Proposition 13…