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By: @Kyle Packham

At the eleventh hour before the deadline for state ballot initiatives to qualify or be removed from the November 3, 2026, statewide ballot, proponents of Initiative 1983, Governor Gavin Newsom, and Legislative leaders announced a deal that protects special districts and other local agencies from the retroactive invalidation of already-approved majority-vote citizens initiatives but could increase the vote threshold on such local revenue measures going forward.

The legislatively approved compromise results in the removal of both Initiative 1983 and ACA 13 (Ward) from the November 2026 statewide ballot and their replacement with ACA 22 (Wicks). CSDA maintained an Oppose position on Initiative 1983 and a Support position on ACA 13. CSDA’s Board of Directors will consider a position on ACA 22 prior to the November election.

Initiative 1983, put forward by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, would have increased the approval threshold on voter-initiated ballot measures from a simple majority (over 50 percent) to two-thirds. In charter cities, it also would have prohibited voters from approving real estate transfer taxes other than the existing 0.11% transfer tax authorized by Revenue and Taxation Code Section 11911.

The initiative attempted to apply its provisions retroactively and sought to overturn all existing voter-approved property-related taxes, including real estate sales and transfer taxes, that do not comply with its requirements two years after its enactment (December 31, 2028).

ACA 13 would have required initiatives seeking to raise the vote threshold to pass by the same threshold they wish to impose on others.

If approved by voters, ACA 22 would prospectively increase the vote threshold for special taxes placed on the ballot by citizens' initiative from a simple majority to a two-thirds super-majority starting January 1, 2027.  

As a result of this negotiated agreement, local ballot measures approved on or before the November 2026 election will no longer be in peril of invalidation. However, California voters will now decide on the narrowed-down question of whether or not to prospectively increase the vote-threshold of local special taxes placed on the ballot by citizens' initiative.

The ability of statewide initiative proponents to withdraw their ballot measure up to 131 days prior to the election was established by the Ballot Initiative Transparency Act of 2014, enacted by SB 1253 (Steinberg). June 25, 2026 marked the withdrawal deadline prior to this year’s Statewide General Election for which Initiative 1983 was officially eligible.

The idea behind SB 1253 was to improve the level of review by the public and the Legislature whereby they are able to provide greater input and suggest amendments or correct flaws before an initiative measure is printed as a proposition on the ballot. Moreover, SB 1253 sought to increase the amount of information made publicly available before voters are asked to decide important issues on their ballot.

According to Ballotpedia, proponents have availed themselves of the alternative path to solving an issue and withdrawn initiative measures 14 times since enactment of SB 1253, including five times in the 2024 election cycle.

Initiative 1983 is the successor to an effort last election cycle with a similar “taxpayer protection” branding that attempted a far more expansive change to the State Constitution. That measure, Initiative 1935, was also opposed by CSDA and was pulled from the November 2024 Statewide General Election Ballot by the California Supreme Court. It sought to impose such draconian changes that it was ruled to be a “Constitutional revision” governed by procedures for revising the Constitution that are outside of the ballot initiative process.

Earlier this summer, on June 3, 2026, CBS News Bay Area’s John Ramos interviewed CSDA Advocacy and External Affairs Officer Kyle Packham regarding Initiative 1983 and the implications for local revenue and local control. “Really, this is an anti-local control measure,” said Packham, “because it’s letting statewide voters retroactively invalidate the decisions of local communities that have already been put into place.”

ACA 22 is one of the 14 ballot measures that will officially appear on the November 3, 2026 statewide ballot. The proposition numbers that will appear on voters’ ballots will be assigned later this summer.

View the full text of Initiative 1983 (25-0006A1), now withdrawn.

View the full text of Assembly Constitutional Amendment 22 (Wicks), now qualified.