Author: Jessica Martini

Voters in Toledo, Ohio, will decide two local ballot measures at a special election on Tuesday, February 26. Question 1 is a citizen initiative designed to restrict the location of jails, prisons, and other facilities housing individuals accused or convicted of crimes to Toledo’s downtown overlay district. The group Keep the Jail Downtown Toledo has…

Voters in the Seattle Public Schools district approved two property tax measures on February 12, 2019. Proposition 1 was designed to fund educational programs with a tax levy at the rates of $1.05 per $1,000 in assessed property value in 2020; $0.96 per $1,000 in 2021; and $0.87 per $1,000 in 2022. The district proposed…

New lawsuits were filed in Oakland and Fresno on February 1 regarding an undetermined vote requirement for citizen tax initiatives.   In Oakland, Measure AA—an education parcel tax—received 62 percent approval on November 6, 2018. The official summary and impartial analysis stated that a two-thirds (66.67 percent) supermajority vote was required for approval of the…

Albuquerque Public Schools district voters in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, defeated three school funding measures on February 5, 2019. With 99 percent of precincts reporting on election night, a capital improvements property tax received 36 percent approval, while a property tax for school buildings received 31 percent approval, and a bond issue for capital and…

Five cities in Los Angeles County—Glendora, Huntington Park, Manhattan Beach, Signal Hill, and West Hollywood—will hold elections on March 5, 2019. Vote-by-mail ballots are scheduled to be mailed to voters on Tuesday, February 5. Registered voters may apply for a vote-by-mail ballot between February 5 and February 26. All ballots must be received by the…

The group, All for Transportation, that sponsored a transportation sales tax measure in Hillsborough County, Florida, has filed a motion requesting dismissal of a lawsuit against the measure.   Referendum 2 was approved in November 2018 by 57 percent of voters, authorizing the county to raise the sales tax rate from 7 percent to 8…

Two property tax measures and a bond issue are on the ballot in the Albuquerque Public Schools district for the mail-in election that concludes Tuesday.   Ballots for the mail-in election must be received by elections officials by 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 5. They may be mailed to or dropped off at the Bernalillo…

After a temporary injunction delayed implementation of new occupancy limits for vacation home rentals (VHRs) in South Lake Tahoe, California, the city has agreed to continue to delay the occupancy limits that were approved under Measure T.   Voters passed Measure T with 50.42 percent approval on November 6, 2018. The measure was designed to…

The West Hollywood City Council voted unanimously to place an issue on the ballot for March 5, 2019—Measure B—giving voters the opportunity to decide on the future of a development project backed by Gwyneth Paltrow.   The proposal in question was designed to redevelop commercial property at 8920 Sunset Boulevard. Paltrow and Gary Landesberg, chairman…

There was a decade high of 100 parcel tax measures on local ballots across California in 2018. A parcel tax is a type of property tax commonly used in California that is based on units of property rather than property value and has revenue dedicated to a specific purpose. These taxes can be levied by…