The California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 421 (AB 421), which addresses the veto referendum process, on Sept. 5, 2023. AB 421 would change how veto referendums appear on the ballot, among other provisions. A veto referendum is a citizen-initiated ballot measure that asks voters whether to uphold or repeal an enacted law. For 2024,…
The California State Assembly advanced a bill in late August that proposed allowing striking workers to claim unemployment insurance benefits after striking for two weeks. The deadline for introducing new legislation had passed, so legislators rewrote Senate Bill 799, which previously related to corrections and criminal rehabilitation, to propose expanding the state’s unemployment insurance availability.…
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) requested documents late last year from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public pension system in the country, and Ceres, a nonprofit group that advises CalPERS on environmental matters. The committee is seeking information about CalPERS’ ESG efforts and the effect they have had on…
Californians have decided on 960 local parcel tax ballot measures from 2008 to Aug. 2023. Voters in Santa Lucia Community Services District, a special district in Monterey County, will decide the next parcel tax measure on Aug. 29, 2023. Since 2008, 577 (60.10%) parcel tax ballot measures were approved and 383 (39.90%) were defeated. From…
On July 26, the California secretary of state announced the third rent control initiative sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in four election cycles had qualified for the Nov. 2024 ballot. Californians defeated the two other initiatives in 2018 and 2020. The 2024 initiative would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which prohibits rent control…
California voters will decide on a constitutional amendment that would repeal Proposition 8, and add language in the California Constitution stating that “the right to marry is a fundamental right,” on Nov. 5, 2024. Proposition 8 was a constitutional amendment approved by California voters by 52-47% in 2008 that defined marriage as between a man…
Californians have decided on 950 local parcel tax ballot measures from 2008 to 2022. Voters in Kirkwood Meadows Public Utility District, a 1.875-square-mile special district in the Sierra Nevada, will decide the next parcel tax measure on July 11, 2023. Between 2008 and 2022, 569 (59.89%) parcel tax ballot measures were approved and 381 (40.11%)…
The number of city officials who had been included in recall efforts as of June 15, 2023, was higher than at a similar point in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Eighteen city officials had drawn recall efforts compared to four in 2022 and one in 2021. Ballotpedia did not track any recall efforts targeting city officials…
Justice for Renters, an initiative campaign sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), submitted signatures on June 20 to place an initiative on the Nov. 2024 ballot in California to prohibit the state from limiting local rent control measures. This would be the third rent control initiative sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in four…
After the 2020 census, California’s 40 state Senators represent an average of 989,419 people each. Each Senator in the 31-member Texas State Senate represents an average of 941,396 people. Both of those figures are larger than the average number of people represented by each member of the U.S. House of Representatives—761,169 people per district. The…