California November 2024 Propositions

There are ten state-wide propositions this time, plus fifteen for San Francisco, three for Oakland, and twelve for Berkeley.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 5^th. You can also vote before then at Early Voting locations. Check your ballot package, or ask your county's Registrar of Voters to find out where. For instance, in Alameda County you can vote at the Registrar's office in downtown Oakland, among other places.

Every California voter now gets a ballot in the mail. You can mail it back, return it by hand to a drop box or voting location, or ignore it and vote in person. However if you do decide to vote in person, it's important to bring your mail ballot along. The poll worker will invalidate it and give you a new one. If you forget to bring your mail ballot, you will be given a provisional ballot which may or may not be counted.

State-wide:	[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36]
San Francisco:	[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O]
Oakland:	[MM] [NN] [OO]
Berkeley:	[W] [X] [Y] [Z] [AA] [BB] [CC] [DD] [EE] [FF] [GG] [HH]

State-wide

2: $10 Billion in Bonds for Schools: A reasonable use of bond funding.

3: Right to Marry: Repeals 2008's Proposition 8 by amending the state constitution to allow same-sex marriage. This will bring California law in line with current federal law allowing everyone to marry. If federal law on this should somehow change in the future, same-sex marriage will remain legal in California.

4: $10 Billion in Bonds for Water, Fire Prevention, Climate Adaptation: Also a reasonable use of bond funding.

5: Lower Threshold for Housing and Infrastructure Bonds: Lowers the vote threshold for local housing and infrastructure bonds from the current 66% to 55%. Includes a provision that prevents governments from using the bond money to demolish existing housing, which is also good.

6: Eliminate Slavery for Prisoners: For some reason California still allows literal slavery for people in prison. This would amend the Constitution to remove that provision.

32: Raise Minimum Wage: Would raise California's minimum wage slightly more than it was already scheduled to ride. I'd like a larger raise but I'll take this.

33: Allow Local Rent Control: 33 repeals Costa-Hawkins and allows local jurisdictions to enact rent control. I've been wanting this for years. It looks like a clean bill, no extra stuff, just the repeal. It was put on the ballot by Michael Weinstein's AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Previous similar measures: 2018's Proposition 10 and 2020's Proposition 21. Both failed.

34: Put Michael Weinstein Out Of The Politics Business: Requires health care organizations which meet certain critera to spend most of their money on health care. This is written with neutral language but in fact it applies to exactly one organization: Michael Weinstein's AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Weinstein has a long history of ripping off prescription drug subsidies to fund his non-AIDS-related political campaigns, mostly on NIMBY issues. And also slumlording. I super duper hate him.
Repealing Costa-Hawkins - see Prop. 33 above - is the one thing I agree with Weinstein on. He has been the only one trying to get it done. If 33 fails, like all the previous attempts, I'd like to see him try again again. On the other hand: hate him. So basically, I'm conflicted. Consider this a very soft Yes.

35: Permanent Funding for Medi-Cal: Makes permanent an existing tax on health plans that funds Medi-Cal.

36: Criminal Sentences Again: This would partially repeal 2014's Proposition 47, which raised the monetary threshold for charging property crimes as felonies. The arguments for it are a bunch of right-wing screeching about crime. The fact is, crime is down. Prop. 47 is working. Let it keep working.

San Francisco

A: Schools Improvement and Safety Bonds: $790 million in bonds for school infrastructure. Requires 55% to pass.

B: Infrastructure Bonds: $390 million in bonds for miscellaneous infrastructure improvements including health centers and street safety. Requires 2/3^rds to pass.

C: Inspector General: Creates a new Inspector General position to investigate complaints of fraud, waste, and abuse. The cost would be under $1 million / year.

D: City Commissions E: Also City Commissions: Measure D would greatly increase the mayor's power over city commissions, shutting out the Board of Supervisors from a major sector of city governance. It's a bad idea. Measure E would establish a commission (well, a task force) to decide what to do about commissions. It's a useless idea. However. D and E are paired; if both pass, only the one with more Yes votes becomes law. Because of that, I suggest voting Yes on the useless measure E just to help block measure D.

F: Police Deferred Retirement: Would establish a Deferred Retirement Option Program that allows police officers to legally double-dip, collecting both salary and pension, for up to five years. The aim is to have more cops. We don't need more cops. No.

G: Funding Rental Subsidies: This would give the existing rental subsidy program for low income households a more dependable source of funding, instead of having to rely on state & federal grants and the yearly city budget process.

H: Retirement Benefits for Firefighters I: Retirement Benefits for Nurses and 911 Operators: These two are somewhat of a puzzle. On the one hand, pensions are good. On the other hand, why are we voting on separate pension packages for each individual occupation? Why not just give all city employees the same pension package? And why are they on the ballot instead of just being negotiated with the relevant unions? I have the same reaction to the occasional proposals to build housing just for teachers - why not build housing for everyone? Anyway, no recommendation for now.

J: Funding Programs Serving Children, Youth, and Families: This is basically a re-org of how city funding gets to children / youth / families. Costs would increase by a few tens of $million, and hopefully that extra money would get passed through to the recipients, perhaps more efficiently than before.

K: Establish Ocean Beach Park: The compromise weekend-only park on Upper Great Highway between Lincoln and Sloat ends next year. This measure says what should happen after that. A Yes vote would establish a 24/7 Ocean Beach Park, while a No vote would bring back cars on weekends. Of course I recommend Yes.

L: Fund The Bus: Establishes a gross receipts tax on ride-hail companies (Uber, Lyft, Waymo). The money would go to help fund Muni.

M: Changes to Business Taxes: This is a fairly complicated measure and on that basis alone it should not be on the ballot; but in addition, since it's also about gross receipts taxes, it conflicts with measure L. If both pass, only the one with more Yes votes becomes law. Since I'm recommending Yes on L, I have to recommend No on M.

N: First Responder Student Loan and Training Reimbursement Fund: Would allow (but not require) creation of a fund to reimburse first responders for their student loans and other training expenses.

O: Supporting Reproductive Rights: This would declare that it's city policy to support reproductive rights, and also enact a set of simple and cheap measures to support those rights concretely.

Oakland

MM: Wildfire Prevention Zone: Would enact a $99/year parcel tax on homes within a Wildfire Prevention Zone. Would raise two or three $million per year, some of which would pay for goats. I like goats.

NN: Public Safety: A $198/year parcel tax to fund police and fire services specifically aimed at violence reduction. Seems expensive but probably necessary.

OO: Public Ethics Commission: Some changes to the Public Ethics Commission. Unclear why this needed to go on the ballot. No recommendation.

Berkeley

W: Real Property Transfer Tax: Raises the tax on transfers over $1.5 million from 1.5% to 2.5%. This tax was adopted in 2018 and is earmarked for homeless services.

X: Library Relief: A 6 cent per square foot parcel tax earmarked for libraries. This would be in addition to the 1980 Library Relief Tax. It requires 2/3^rds to pass.

Y: Parks, Trees, and Landscaping Maintenance Tax: A 20% increase to the existing parcel tax that funds parks. This requires 2/3^rds to pass.

Z: Extend Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax: 2014's Measure D sugary soda tax is scheduled to expire in 2027; this would extend it indefinitely.

AA: Article XIIIB GANN Appropriations Limit: California has a bizarro constitutional amendment requiring voter approval to spend money already appropriated, so these seemingly pointless measures show up on the ballot occasionally. They don't usually include the amendment in the measure's title though, that's a nice bit of snark. The "GANN" in the title is Paul Gann, also co-responsible for Proposition 13.

BB: Rent Stabilization and Housing Retention CC: Directed Rental Payments: These two measures are both about housing rental so they are paired; if they both pass, only the one with more Yes votes goes into effect. BB is a grab-bag of pro-tenant provisions. CC would direct 20% of Berkeley's business taxes on rental properties into a fund to pay rent for tenants who are falling behind, which sounds good, but it also includes a bunch of anti-tenant provisions including a couple of attacks on the Rent Board.

DD: Prohibition on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: This measure would outlaw stockyards in Berkeley. There are no stockyards in Berkeley. There are no plans for stockyards in Berkeley. It's performative nonsense. I'm not going to even bother voting no, I'll just leave it blank.

EE: Fix the Streets & Sidewalks FF: SAFE STREETS Initiative: EE and FF are paired; if both pass, only the one with more Yes votes becomes law. They both enact a parcel tax to fund street repair and safety. FF's tax rate is slightly higher; the funding it generates is significantly higher and lasts longer. In addition, FF funds more bike infrastructure. FF is the one to vote for.

GG: Natural Gas Consumption Tax: Berkeley previously attempted to ban new natural gas hookups; that was struck down in federal court. This measure would instead add a tax on natural gas consumption, generating about $25 million year. It only applies to large buildings. The money would go to low-interest loans helping the buildings transition away from natural gas. Sounds like a good plan!

HH: Indoor Air Quality Standards: This would require city-owned buildings to implement air filtration aimed at reducing airborne virus transmission. Opponents moan about the cost but basic air filtration is quite cheap. And it saves lives. Every city should do the same, and not just for municipal buildings.

California's Voter Information Guide for propositions.
Alameda County measures.
San Francisco Measures.
Oakland Measures.
Berkeley Measures.
Ballotpedia's information page.
Pete Rates the Propositions.
SPUR Voter Guide.
SF's League of Pissed Off Voters.
Berkeleyside's rundown of the Berkeley measures.
My recommendations for the March 2024, 2022, 2020, November 2018, June 2018, November 2016, June 2016, 2014, November 2012, June 2012, November 2010, June 2010, 2008, 2006, 2005, and 2004 propositions.
Back to Jef's page.