After months of signature gathering, backroom negotiations and judicial bombshells, the field is set: California voters will decide on ten state ballot measures this November, the Secretary of State’s office announced Thursday.
Here’s a first look at the measures on the ballot, which collectively will have far-reaching implications for climate, criminal justice, housing, health care and schools.
Proposition 2 (school facilities bond): The Legislature placed this $10 billion bond measure on the ballot to renovate and construct K–12 and community college facilities across the state. The money would help local school districts replace portable classrooms, retrofit existing buildings and construct more classrooms for the state’s new grade, transitional kindergarten.
Proposition 3 (same-sex marriage): This measure would officially remove the language banning same-sex marriage, passed by voters in 2008, from the state constitution. In practice, that law has been nullified since a Supreme Court ruling in 2013 that allowed same-sex marriages to resume in California. However, Democrats in the Legislature placed this measure on the ballot, arguing it is needed to signal the state’s progressive shift on the issue and protect against any potential future changes to federal marriage protections.
Proposition 4 (climate bond): The second bond placed on the ballot by the Legislature would allocate $10 billion, with the goal of helping California prepare and adapt for the impacts of climate change. Two areas of focus for the bond money would be water infrastructure, such as groundwater storage and reservoirs and wildfire prevention, including controlled burns and forest thinning.
Proposition 5 (housing and infrastructure votes): Democrats in the Legislature placed this measure on the ballot, making it easier for local governments to pass bonds and taxes that fund affordable housing and infrastructure. Those measures currently require approval from a two-thirds supermajority of voters — if this measure passes, the threshold would be lowered to 55%.
Proposition 6 (prison labor): A task force that studied the idea of reparations for Black Californians proposed the idea at the heart of this measure: to remove the clause in the state constitution that allows involuntary servitude as a punishment for a crime. In practice, this proposal would primarily impact people incarcerated in California prisons by preventing the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from disciplining inmates who refuse a work assignment.
Proposition 32 (minimum wage): California’s minimum wage would increase to $18 an hour by 2026 under this measure — up from the current minimum of $16 an hour. Investor and anti-poverty activist Joe Sanberg bankrolled the campaign to place this measure on the ballot.
Proposition 33 (rent control): Is the third time the charm for an expansion of rent control? After voters rejected the idea in 2018 and 2020, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is again proposing the idea to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which prevents local governments from enacting rent control on single-family homes and units built after 1995 — as well as older homes in some cities with longstanding rent control statutes.
Proposition 34 (prescription drug spending): This measure would place new requirements on organizations that participate in a federal prescription drug program, known as 340B, in which hospitals and clinics receive discounted prescription drugs from pharmaceutical manufacturers and then charge higher prices to the plans paying for the drugs — such as insurance companies or Medicare. Proposition 34 would require that 98% of revenue from the program be spent directly on patient care. Now, the politics: The state lobby representing landlords gathered signatures to place this measure on the ballot to restrict the political spending of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a 340B participant.
Proposition 35 (Medi-Cal funding): Health insurance companies in California, such as Kaiser and Anthem, pay a tax called the Managed Care Organizations (MCO) tax, which the Legislature routinely reapproves. Groups representing doctors and hospitals qualified this measure to make the MCO tax permanent and earmark its revenue to increase payment rates for doctors who treat Medi-Cal patients instead of allowing the funds to be used for any purpose in the general fund.
Proposition 36 (Proposition 47 overhaul): This measure would roll back parts of Proposition 47, a voter-approved initiative in 2014 that reduced punishments for some nonviolent crimes. Backed by law enforcement and district attorneys amid rising concern over retail theft, Proposition 36 would allow prosecutors to charge people who have three convictions of drug possession or theft with a felony and potentially seek prison time. In the case of theft, the felony could be charged regardless of the cost of the goods stolen.
KQED’s Ezra David Romero contributed to this report.
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