With the Democratic Party convention taking place this month in Chicago, Illinois, Californians may not be paying much attention to the slate of measures that’ll appear on the November 5 ballot. There’ll be ten of them, as well as a slew of local measures.
Proposition 2: Borrow $10 billion to build schools. Sponsored by Democrats in the State Legislature, this bond issue would provide $8.5 billion to kindergarten to twelfth grade schools and $1.5 billion to community colleges for construction and modernization.
Proposition 3: Reaffirm the right of same-sex couples to marry. This constitutional amendment, placed on the ballot by the California Legislature, would remove outmoded language from Proposition 8, passed by voters in 2008, that characterizes marriage as being between a man and a woman.
Proposition 4: Borrow $10 billion for climate programs. Legislative Democrats placed this bond issue on the ballot, which includes $3.8 billion for investments associated with potable water and groundwater, $1.5 billion for wildfire and forest programs and $1.2 billion to adapt to sea level rise.
Proposition 5:Lower voter approval requirements for local housing and infrastructure bonds. The California Legislature placed this constitutional amendment on the ballot to make it easier for local governments to borrow money to build affordable housing and other infrastructure. Bond monies could not be used to buy single-family homes.
Proposition 6: Limit forced labor in state prisons. Lawmakers placed this constitutional amendment on the ballot to end indentured servitude in state prisons.
Proposition 32: Raise the state minimum wage to $18 an hour. Under existing law, the overall minimum wage is $16 an hour. Fast food workers received a $20 an hour minimum on April 1 and health care workers will eventually get $25, though not until mid-October at the earliest.
Proposition 33: Allow local governments to impose rent controls.This initiative would attempt to peel off a state law that generally prevents cities and counties from limiting rents in properties first occupied after February 1, 1995.
Proposition 34: Require certain health providers to use nearly all revenue from a federal prescription drug program on patient care. The initiative would apply to healthcare providers who have spent more than $100 million in any 10-year period on things besides direct patient care and have managed multifamily housing with more than 500 “high-severity health and safety violations.” If a provider meets that standard they’d be required to spend 98 percent of their revenues from a federal prescription drug program on direct patient care. The measure also permanently allows the state to negotiate Medi-Cal drug prices. Setting aside its merits, by all accounts the Proposition is directed at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which for years has lobbied for stricter rent control laws, including this year’s Proposition 33.
Proposition 35: Make permanent a tax on managed health care insurance plans. This initiative would raise money for Medi-Cal and block lawmakers from using the funds to avoid cuts to other programs.
Proposition 36: Increase penalties for theft and drug trafficking. This initiative would partly roll back Proposition 47, approved by voters in 2014, which downsized some lower-level crimes to misdemeanors and established a $950 threshold for shoplifting felonies. The Proposition’s backers, which include San Francisco Mayor London Breed and the California District Attorneys Association, argue that Proposition 47 has led to increased crime and retail theft.
Proposition 1, Governor Gavn Newsom’s mental health measure, narrowly passed in March.
Thomas Hunter II 
Jessica Zimmer