CALIFORNIA BALLOT INITIATIVES

by Bob Walsh

The formerly great state of California has had a very robust ballot initiative system for well over 100 years.  Initiatives can be placed on the ballot both by act of the legislature or by the people, via signature gathering.  It works reasonably well in the specific, but it has ended up with CA having a 600 page constitution.  Some of these have been very good, such as Three Strikes or Proposition 13, which severely limited the ability of the state to tax people out of their homes.  

There were an even dozen of these little suckers on the ballot this time around.  Here is the results, with 99% of the vote in.

Proposition 14 DID PASS.  This creates a $5.5 billion bond program to support stem cell and other medical research.

Proposition 15 DID NOT PASS.  Had it passed this would have been a camel's nose under the tent thing that would have allowed government to chip away at the Proposition 13 limitations on property taxes.  

Proposition 16 DID NOT PASS.  Had is passed it would have legalized discrimination based on race, etc. in government hiring, contracting, school admissions and similar things.  There have been numerous attempts in the past to re-legalize racial discrimination in CA.  All have failed.  

Proposition 17 DID PASS.  This allows parolees to vote.  This will put another 50,000 people, who will tend to vote Democrat, into the voter pool.

Proposition 18 DID NOT PASS.  Had it passed it would have allowed 17-year olds to vote in a primary election if they would turn 18 by the general election.

Proposition 19 DID PASS.  This allows senior citizens to carry their Proposition 13 tax exemption to a new residence when they are forced to move due to some disaster such as a wildfire.

Proposition 20 DID NOT PASS.  Had is passed it would have limited repeat property crime criminal's ability to access sentencing limiting programs.  It failed, which means that repeat property criminals still get to pretend they are basically good people for sentencing purposes.

Proposition 21 DID NOT PASS.  This was another rent control expansion plan.  It failed, as have others.  

Proposition 22 DID PASS.  This enables Uber, Lyft, Door-Dash and other similar gig economy workers to continue to work as private contractors rather than company employees.  It also gives them some extra benefits and more money.

Proposition 23 DID NOT PASS.  This would have required that kidney dialysis clinics have a medical doctor on duty at all times when treatment was being administered.  It would have put a huge crimp in the dialysis program in CA and could have endangered some dialysis patients, or at least landed them in the hospital.

Proposition 24 DID PASS.  This prevents business operations from sharing personal information on customers by expanding privacy laws.

Proposition 25 DID NOT PASS.  Had it passed it would have eliminated the bail system in CA and substituted a civil service run threat assessment matrix.  Essentially it would have meant that virtually everybody got out of jail pre-trial without payment of bail.  Clearly the bail industry opposed it, as did ordinary citizens who are not criminals and do not have their heads up their butts.