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California voters are set to decide on 14 ballot measures this fall

By

Victoria Antram

June 25 was the deadline for initiatives and referrals to qualify or be removed from the ballot in California. Voters will be deciding on nine ballot initiatives and five legislative referrals this fall after deals were struck among several opposing sides, resulting in the withdrawal of six measures from the ballot.

Billionaire tax and competing measures

SEIU-UHW is sponsoring an initiative that would levy a 5% wealth tax on the state’s billionaires to fund public education and healthcare programs. Committees opposed to the wealth tax qualified two initiatives targeting the initiative. The first initiative would require state laws or ballot initiatives levying a new special tax enacted after Jan. 1, 2026, to undergo state audits every four years to determine program effectiveness and cost-saving measures and prohibit the state from enforcing any tax that is exempted or excluded from the state spending limit enacted or effective on or after Jan. 1, 2026. The billionaires’ tax contains a provision that exempts the revenue from the state’s General Fund when calculating the state minimum guarantee for education funding, which was enacted by Proposition 98 in 1988. 

The second initiative would prohibit the enactment of new taxes after Jan. 1, 2026, on ownership or control of retirement holdings, individually-owned assets, and other forms of personal savings and retroactive taxes that result in a tax liability based on conduct, activities, or a status that occurred or was present prior to the effective date of the tax. The billionaires’ tax would account for and tax the value of the following assets:

  • publicly traded securities at their market value on December 31, 2026;
  • private business interests;
  • assets under a sole proprietorship;
  • grantor trusts;
  • art, collectibles, intellectual property, vehicles, other financial instruments not publicly traded, and debts or liabilities owed to the individual ($5 million exclusion of total combined asset value from net worth);
  • Roth IRA or other Roth-type retirement accounts valued above $10 million;
  • property valued at more than $1 million transferred after October 15, 2025, for less than fair market value; and
  • dependent's assets in excess of $50,000.

The competing measures contain provisions stating that if either initiative receives more votes than the competing measure, it would prevail in its entirety over any other measure on the 2026 ballot related to such taxes.

In a press release on the deadline, Save California Health Care and Public Education, the campaign behind the billionaires’ tax, said, “For healthcare workers who have dedicated their lives to caring for patients, today’s news isn’t just welcome, it’s critical. With no other viable alternatives proposed by Governor Newsom, the billionaire tax is the only available option to stop a cascade of hospital and clinic closures spurred by massive federal cuts in President Trump’s so-called ‘Big, Beautiful Bill.’”

Californians to Protect Retirement and Life Savings, the campaign behind one of the competing initiatives, said, “With California’s high taxes and cost of living putting retirement further out of reach, the Act provides needed protections to help ensure the money people worked hard to earn and save will be there when they need it.”

Voters will also be deciding whether to extend the top marginal tax rates indefinitely, first adopted in 2012 and set to expire in 2031, on single filers earning at least $361,000 or joint filers earning at least $721,000, with 89% of revenue allocated to K–12 schools and 11% to community colleges. The lead sponsors of the initiative are the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers.

Election-related measures

There are three election-related measures on the ballot this November. A campaign chaired by State Rep. Carl DeMaio (R-75) qualified an initiative that would require voters to present a government-issued ID for in-person voting or provide the last four digits of a government-issued ID designated during voter registration for mail-in voting and require election officials to "maintain accurate voter registration lists [and]... use best efforts to verify citizenship attestations using government data.” 

The state legislature also referred two measures related to elections — a statute to allow the state and local governments to create programs that provide candidates with public funds under spending limits and eligibility rules, and an amendment to eliminate the successor election when a state officer is recalled.

SEIU-UHW and California Hospital Association

Two ballot initiatives were withdrawn from the ballot on June 24 when a compromise was reached between SEIU-UHW and the California Hospital Association, who were on competing sides. The SEIU-UHW measure would have established a $450,000 compensation cap for healthcare executives and managers. The California Hospital Association measure would have required healthcare labor unions to inform members annually how member dues are being spent on political activities and require a majority of members to approve contributions and expenditures on state and local ballot measures. Regarding the negotiation, CHA President Carmela Coyle said the deal “marks an important step in strengthening the healthcare system to ensure high-quality healthcare services are accessible throughout California.”

A third initiative sponsored by SEIU-UHW remains on the ballot. It would prohibit healthcare clinics, specifically federally-qualified health centers and related organizations, from spending less than 90% of their annual revenue on mission-related purposes.

Uber and Consumer Attorneys of California

A pair of dueling initiatives, backed by Uber and Consumer Attorneys of California, were withdrawn from the ballot shortly after qualifying on June 18. The Uber measure would have required car accident victims to receive at least 75% of the total amount of damages recovered and prohibited referral agreements between personal injury law firms and medical care providers. 

Consumer Attorneys of California was sponsoring an initiative that would have established that rideshare companies are common carriers; required rideshare drivers to submit state and federal fingerprint background checks prior to contracting with a rideshare company; and required rideshare companies to report the number of sexual assaults or misconduct occurrences monthly on their websites. 

A joint statement from Uber and the Consumer Attorneys of California said, "Both sides agree: Californians deserve a system that’s safe, fair, and accountable. This agreement protects patients from unnecessary treatment or getting overcharged, ensures access to medical care and legal representation, and strengthens safety measures."

California Business Roundtable/ Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and state legislators

A decades-long conflict regarding vote thresholds for local initiated special taxes will be decided in November. After reaching a legislative compromise, the California Business Roundtable and Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) withdrew a measure that would have:

  • increased the vote requirement to pass citizen-initiated local special taxes from a simple majority (50%+1) to a two-thirds (66.67%) vote;
  • prohibited charter cities from imposing their own real estate transfer taxes, whether for general or specific purposes, above the existing statutory rate of $0.275 per $500 of value; and
  • invalidated any property-related special taxes previously adopted with an approval rate below two-thirds or real estate transfer taxes in charter cities.

As part of the agreement, the California State Legislature voted to send a constitutional amendment to voters in November that would require a two-thirds vote by the electorate to enact, extend, or increase local special tax initiatives and prohibit the enactment of property taxes through the initiative process. The measure is not retroactive like the former initiative. It passed with 96.3% support from voting Democrats and unanimous support from voting Republicans in the state legislature.

The state legislature also voted to remove a constitutional amendment that would have required initiatives that change vote thresholds to supermajority votes to pass by the same vote requirement as is being proposed. The amendment was originally slated to appear on the 2024 ballot to compete with another initiative, sponsored by the California Business Roundtable and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, related to tax vote thresholds, but it was later moved to the 2026 ballot by the state legislature when the California Supreme Court ruled the initiative could not appear on the 2024 ballot because it was unconstitutional.

The fight over tax vote thresholds began in 1978 with the approval of Proposition 13, which required local governments to refer special taxes to the ballot and required a two-thirds vote of electors. Regarding the deal, HJTA President Jon Coupal said, “It's a tremendous turnaround. In 2024, the California Legislature sought to make it easier to raise taxes with Proposition 5, which the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association defeated at the ballot. Today the Legislature voted to make it harder to raise taxes by advancing a constitutional amendment, ACA 22, to close a loophole that had allowed some special taxes to pass with less than the two-thirds vote required by Proposition 13.”

Also on the ballot

Voters will also decide on ballot initiatives to:

On the day of the deadline, the state legislature also voted to send a $11.25 billion bond measure for veteran and housing assistance programs and a constitutional amendment increasing the limit the state legislature can deposit into the Budget Stabilization Account (rainy day fund) from 10% of general fund revenue to 20%.

Statistics

Since 2014, when the state legislature authorized petitioners to withdraw initiatives before the ballot deadline, petitioners have withdrawn 19 ballot initiatives, including five this year.

In California, a total of 1,306 ballot measures appeared on statewide ballots between 1910 and 2024. Seven hundred fifty-two (752) ballot measures were approved, and five hundred fifty-four (554) ballot measures were defeated. The average number of ballot measures in even-numbered years was between 20 and 21.