Assembly Member Christopher Ward has amended Assembly Constitutional Amendment 13, related to ballot measures. There is significant interplay between ACA 13 and Initiative 21-0042A1— in short, successful passage of ACA 13 is expected to protect public agencies from the potentially disastrous effects of the initiative measure. For that reason, we believe your agency would be particularly interested in supporting Assembly Member Ward’s ACA 13.

ACA 13, if passed by two-thirds of the California Legislature, would propose to voters the following: 

If an initiative constitutional amendment includes provisions that impose vote thresholds greater than a simple majority of votes cast, then that initiative constitutional amendment must receive a percentage of votes in support equal to those increased vote thresholds.

1. If an initiative constitutional amendment includes a provision that would impose a supermajority (e.g., three-fifths, two-thirds, four-fifths, etc.) voter approval threshold, then that initiative would be required to gain the approval of the same supermajority (three-fifths, two-thirds, four-fifths, etc.; whatever threshold the initiative proposes) of California voters in order to pass
2. If the initiative constitutional amendment includes provisions that impose a supermajority vote threshold and fails to gain the corresponding supermajority of voters in support of the underlying amendment, the initiative constitutional amendment would not be considered approved, thereby failing in its entirety

As you may recall, Initiative 21-0042A1 imposes thresholds requiring the approval of two-thirds of voters in various places throughout the text of the measure. The successful passage of ACA 13 would mean that Initiative 21-0042A1 would be required to garner the approval of two-thirds of voters in order for the initiative constitutional amendment to be considered approved; failure to garner the approval of two-thirds of voters in this scenario would mean that the entire measure and all of its provisions would fail to become law.

Here's where you and the chapter come in…

CSDA is encouraging organizations opposed to Initiative 21-0042A1 to consider supporting ACA 13, and to submit a letter of support to that effect. To make this process easy, CSDA has developed a sample letter.

These letters to the author will demonstrate how important this is to public agencies, including special districts.

 LINK TO SAMPLE LETTER