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By @Colleen Haley 

On July 31, the Contra Costa Special Districts Association and the Alameda County Special Districts Association came together to hold a joint meeting of the membership. The meeting took place at the Dublin San Ramon Services District, which serves residents within both Counties. The purpose of the meeting was to network and provide an educational forum on Initiative 21-0042A1, entitled “Limits Ability of Voters and State and Local Governments to Raise Revenues for Government Services. Initiative Constitutional Amendment”.

Speakers included Tom Rubin, Vice President of the Alameda County Taxpayers Association, Ben Granholm, with Swing Strategies (representing the proponents), Ben Triffo, Legislative Representative for Cal Cities and Kyle Packham, CSDA Advocacy and Public Affairs Director. Tim Seufert of NBS Consultants gave the opening remarks, which included a background on Prop 13 and an overview of the CBRT initiative. Walnut Creek Mayor Cindy Silva also addressed the audience at the request of Cal Cities.

The proponents of the measure (representatives from the Alameda County Taxpayers Association, the Contra Costa County Taxpayers Association, and Swing Strategies) painted the current unaffordability climate in California as being due to uncontrolled taxes, such as income, sales, and gas taxes.

Cal Cities and CSDA overviewed the unfortunate consequences that could occur if the measure passes, including unintended ones to the business community. As was stated by Kyle Packham, “Everyone will be impacted when fire, water, roads, sewage and other emergency and essential services become less reliable due to local governments needing to adhere to the ‘minimum amount necessary’ provision of the initiative.”

Furthermore, the Mayor of Walnut Creek, Cindy Silva, discussed how the measure would impact local governments that passed revenue measures after January 1, 2022, as the initiative is retroactive to this date. As she described, it will cost more to do the same thing all over again. The second time around, local governments would have to pay more to re-run a previously approved revenue measure. Additionally, the rising cost of labor and materials would make any delayed projects that much more expensive to implement.

CSDA is proud to have affiliated chapters throughout the state that work to disseminate valuable information and provide a forum for local officials to learn and share insights. 

For more information on the Voter Limitation Initiative, including a sample resolution to join the more than 100 special districts that have adopted an oppose position, please visit CSDA’s Take Action page (https://csda.net/advocate/take-action/voterlimitations).