Proposition guide

Position: SUPPORT

Approves $10 billion in bonds to repair and upgrade California’s public schools and community colleges

Many of California’s schools are old and outdated: 38% of children attend schools that don’t meet minimum standards where they are exposed to dangers like asbestos, mold, unsafe drinking water, and extreme heat. This not only harms student and teacher health, but also leads to worse learning outcomes. We need high quality public schools as an investment in the next generation.

Proposition 2 will authorize $10 billion in bond funding to make urgent repairs and upgrades in our local public schools and community colleges. This funding also allows school districts to spend bond dollars towards climate, adaptation, and energy goals.

The bond has been criticized because money is distributed through state matching grants, which traditionally benefit richer school districts with higher property values. Although the bond has a sliding scale with the state paying a greater share of costs for less affluent districts, some argue that it’s not nearly enough. We share these concerns, but ultimately support Proposition 2 as an urgently needed infusion of funding for our public schools.

Position: SUPPORT

Establishes the freedom to marry as a fundamental right, ensuring that protections for same-sex and interracial couples are enshrined in our constitution

In 2008, California voters passed a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The Supreme Court overruled this when same-sex marriage was legalized nationally in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision.

With the radical right-wing composition of the Supreme Court, social progress cannot be taken for granted. This has been made clear by recent attacks on reproductive freedoms and threats to the LGBTQ+ community across the country.

Proposition 3 will replace the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman with a provision that establishes the right to marry as a human right. Proposition 3 will ensure that protections for same-sex and interracial couples are enshrined in our constitution.

This is fundamental to our vision for a just society, and comes at a critical time to defend human rights.

Position: SUPPORT

Approves $10 billion in bonds to address climate change threats like wildfires, vulnerable drinking water supplies, and extreme heat

Climate change is an existential threat, and we are already seeing the impacts in California. Every year, devastating wildfires, drought and water pollution, and extreme heat are killing people, destroying communities, and costing billions of dollars in damages.

Multiple years of state budget deficits have led to significant cuts to California’s climate programs. Proposition 4 approves $10 billion in bond funding to make urgently needed investments that protect our communities, our economy, and the environment.

While many coalition members, especially environmental justice and equity organizations, fought for a stronger bond proposal that would have invested more in disadvantaged communities and environmental justice priorities, this $10 billion is still urgently needed to fight climate change, and is an important down payment for a healthier future.

Position: SUPPORT ~PRIORITY~

Empowers communities to pass local bonds to build more affordable housing and public infrastructure

Our state is facing increasingly serious challenges: we have a massive shortage of affordable housing; critical infrastructure–like roads, bridges, and water systems–is aging and unsafe; and we lack the emergency and fire response needed to protect our families and communities.

California voters strongly support building more affordable housing and public infrastructure, but state law currently restricts the ability of local voters to approve local housing and public infrastructure bonds for their communities by requiring a 67% majority to pass.

Proposition 5 lowers the approval threshold to 55%, empowering more communities to address their local affordable housing and infrastructure needs on their terms.

We know we will need massive investments in order to advance our vision for green social housing. Proposition 5 is an important tool to unlock local revenue measures that could be used to fund acquisition, retrofitting, and new construction of green social housing. It is a stepping stone toward our long term agenda, and a priority for our coalition.

Position: SUPPORT

Bans the practice of forced labor in the state prison system

California’s state constitution outlaws slavery, but maintains language that allows for involuntary servitude to be used as punishment for a crime. This allows prisons to require inmates to work for wages as low as eight cents an hour. With an incarcerated population that is disproportionately made up of Black and Latino men, this system of forced labor continues a legacy of slavery and exploitation.

Proposition 6 would join California with over 30 other states that have struck down the archaic practice of involuntary servitude in their state constitutions. Proposition 6 will eliminate forced labor in the state prison system, and provide for more dignity in the earning capacity and rehabilitation process of incarcerated people.

It is a moral imperative and long overdue.

Position: SUPPORT

Increases the state minimum wage to $18/hour with annual cost of living increases

While California maintains a higher minimum wage than other states, the current standard still puts minimum wage earning workers far below the cost of living. About 2 million Californians work full-time but earn less than $18 per hour, most of whom are heads of their households and supporting kids.

In 2016, the California state legislature passed SB 3 to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2023, and mandated adjustments for inflation tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Proposition 32 would follow a similar format to continue to increase the statewide minimum wage to $18 per hour by 2026, with a required CPI-based increase after $18/hour has been reached.

People working full-time should be able to cover life’s basic needs. When wages don’t keep up with the cost of living, those costs are passed down to our state safety nets. We should not be subsidizing corporations that choose to pay low wages in order to reap profits for their owners.

Position: SUPPORT ~PRIORITY~

Allows cities to pass rent control ordinances to reign in high rental prices

We have a housing crisis in California. Lower-income tenants are hit hardest, with over half paying more than 50% of their income in rent. California is also experiencing the fastest rate increase in homelessness in the country, which can be largely attributed to increasing rents and housing affordability. Meanwhile, the real estate industry continues to make huge profits and corporate landlords are increasingly buying up apartment buildings and single-family homes.

In 1995, the state legislature passed the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which prohibited rent control in single-family homes, condominium units, and newly built rental properties. Consta-Hawkins also prohibited vacancy control, which means that landlords can bring units up to market-rate when tenants move out – incentivizing landlords to push their tenants out if they want to make more money.

Proposition 33 removes the ban on rent control in California, giving local communities the right to stabilize rents and make apartments more affordable for low-income and middle-income renters. This empowers local communities with the option of using rent control as a tool to stem the housing affordability and homelessness crisis.

For too long, Costa-Hawkins has tied the hands of local communities to take action and address soaring rent prices. Proposition 33 is a crucial step toward addressing the housing crisis, and is a priority for our coalition.

Position: OPPOSE

Limits the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s ability to fund political campaigns

In recent years, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has provided extensive funding and advocacy support to ballot initiatives intended to support low-income housing development, including Proposition 33 this year. Proposition 34 is a real estate industry effort targeted directly at AHF and preventing them from funding ballot initiatives.

Whatever you might think of AHF (and there are plenty of reasons to be critical, including the disrepair of the housing units they own), this is a blatant move by the real estate industry to target a single organization through the ballot box. This targeted attack on a political opponent is anti-democratic, and would set a dangerous precedent and industry blueprint for how to silence opposition.

Position: OPPOSE

Increases criminal penalties and incarceration for nonviolent crimes

In 2014, Californians passed Prop 47 with an overwhelming majority of the vote. Prop 47 reclassified six minor felony offenses to misdemeanors, including shoplifting and simple drug possession, and it funneled costs savings into safety measures like drug and mental health treatment, homelessness prevention, and victim services centers. These changes aligned with research that shows that addressing these offenses with jail or prison time is both expensive and ineffective. Studies have concluded that Prop 47 was successful in reducing recidivism, saving the state more than $800 million and reducing both the prison population and its racial disparities.

Prop 36 would make changes to Prop 47, and add new penalties for drug use and a broad range of theft offenses, as well as add new sentencing enhancements that would apply to any type of crime. Recent data suggests that criminalizing personal drug use is largely ineffective, and tends to disproportionately impact marginalized groups. It would cost hundreds of millions of dollars every year in increased court costs and a growing prison population.

Prop 36 will not make our communities safer. It would mean a return to mass incarceration as our solution to public safety, one that is both ineffective and expensive. Instead, we should focus on real solutions that address the root causes of drug addiction and criminal activity.