2024 California Initiative Could Change How Taxes Are Voted Upon

Izzet Keribar

California proposed an initiative with the intention of making it harder to raise taxes, this is backed by businesses in the state.  

To be eligible to be on the ballot, The Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act needed 997,139 valid petition signatures in support of this initiative. This number was greatly surpassed. The Secretary of State will certify the initiative on June 27, 2024 and it will be on the General Election ballot for the November 2024 election.

What is the initiative?

This initiative defines all state and local charges and fees as taxes. If voted upon, this initiative would make it so that any new increased taxes proposed by the state legislature would need to be approved by ⅔ of the electorate in each chamber and then approved by a majority of voters. 

This changes the current way of approving taxes which is ⅔ vote in each chamber or a simple majority of voters statewide. The initiative combines these two current possibilities to pass an amendment into one to pass taxes for the state. 

There is also a change in local special tax increase pushed by citizen-initiated voters that would change from a simple majority to ⅔ of voters. 

There is no change when it comes to state legislatures proposing a decrease in taxes, a state tax that is citizen-initiated, and a local tax increase by a local board.

What does this do?

This initiative was introduced due to an intense increase in California taxes. Supporters believe that this is a way to limit the increase in taxes and help citizens. Those that oppose believe it would withhold cities and counties of needed revenue. 

“The Taxpayer Protection Act was written to restore a series of voter-approved ballot measures that gave taxpayers, not politicians, more say over when and how new tax revenue is raised.” 

“Over the past decade, the California courts have created massive loopholes and confusion in long-established tax law and policy. The Taxpayer Protection Act closes those loopholes and provides new safeguards to increase accountability and transparency over how politicians spend our tax dollars,” Jon Coupal, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President, states. 

There is pushback from Democrats in California for this initiative. There has been an amendment proposed entitled Assembly Constitutional Amendment 13 (ACA 13) in which any Constitutional amendment has to be approved by a simple statewide majority vote in support. 

"This deceptive initiative [The Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act] would undermine the rights of local voters and their elected officials to make decisions on critical local services that residents rely upon. It creates major new tax loopholes at the expense of residents and will weaken our local services and communities,” states Graham Knaus, executive director of the California State Association of Counties.

ACA 13 supports the idea of “one person, one vote” for each initiative and amendment that voters vote on. If put on the ballot, this amendment would require two-thirds Legislature votes and approved by a simple majority of state voters to pass. 

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) signed on as the co-author of this amendment in opposition to The Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, which could mean this is a priority for Democrats.