Proposition 43 is a taxpayer protection measure that makes it harder to raise local special taxes, such as sales taxes, that are earmarked for a specific purpose. But Prop. 43 is nothing new. It merely restores what California voters have approved three times in the past but what was taken away by questionable court rulings.
For years, California’s Constitution was understood to require two-thirds voter approval for local special taxes. That understanding began to change after the California Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in California Cannabis Coalition v. City of Upland. Although Upland concerned the timing of an initiative election, the court distinguished between taxes imposed by local government and those proposed by voters through the initiative process. Subsequent decisions applied that reasoning to the two-thirds vote requirement for special taxes.
The result is a loophole at the center of Proposition 13. While a city council or county board of supervisors needs two-thirds voter approval to pass a special tax, an initiative proposing the identical tax can pass with a simple majority. Proposition 43 would close that loophole for voter-proposed local special taxes approved after January 1, 2027. Several tax increase proposals on this November’s ballot show why this protection…
