SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Supreme Court sided with Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday and removed from the November ballot a bill that would have made tax increases more hard, saying the change would have upended the way government works.
The measure would have required voter approval for any tax boost passed by the state legislature and would have required a two-thirds majority of voters for all local tax increases, rather than a uncomplicated majority.
But the biggest impact was that the measure threatened to retroactively undo most of the tax increases approved since Jan. 1, 2022. Local governments warned they would lose billions of dollars in revenue previously approved by voters. It would also jeopardize a tax boost on guns and ammunition that lawmakers approved last year to fund various gun safety programs and school safety improvements.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to remove this dangerous initiative from the ballot prevents a series of catastrophic impacts and secures billions of dollars for schools, access to reproductive health care, gun safety laws that keep students safe in classrooms, and paid family leave,” said Jonathan Underland, spokesman for the campaign opposing the initiative.
Supporters of the measure called the ruling “the greatest threat to democracy California has faced in recent memory” and pointed out that the measure met the rules to be placed on the ballot because it collected enough signatures from the public before the deadline.
“The governor has cynically stripped Californians of their right to direct democracy, despite his many claims that he is a defender of individual rights and democracy,” said a press release from the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act campaign.
The ballot initiative presented a thorny political question for Newsom, a Democrat currently in his second term and a presidential candidate. He has opposed many tax increases and campaigned against novel taxes on the wealthy. But he has also been willing to temporarily raise corporate taxes to balance the state budget, something he is proposing again this year.
Republicans on Thursday called Newsom “greedy” and argued that his successful attempt to block the measure would continue to make things more exorbitant in California, which has one of the highest tax burdens in the country, according to the Tax Foundation and other groups.
“The California Democratic machine’s love affair with new taxes to fund its ridiculous policies continues to cost Californians their hard-earned money, and Newsom has just made it even easier to take even more away from them,” said Jessica Millan Patterson, chair of the California Republican Party.
Newsom argued that he could oppose both novel taxes and referendums, which he said would prevent state and local governments from raising taxes during times of crisis.
It is scarce for a bill to be removed from the ballot before an election, but it is not a novel occurrence in California. In 1999, the court struck down a bill that would have cut legislators’ salaries and stripped them of the power to draw districts. The court removed the bill from the ballot because it addressed more than one issue.
In that case, the court unanimously ruled that the ballot bill was illegal because it would revise, not amend, the state constitution. The court said that while voters had the right to impose these novel tax-raising rules, they could not do so by referendum because it would “materially alter our basic plan of government.”
A revision of the constitution would be more hard because voters would first have to agree to convene a constitutional assembly to discuss the amendment.
