Proposition Guide 2020

Prop 14 – NO – Bonds for Stem Cell Research – Borrows $5.5 Billion more for California’s stem cell agency. Stem cell research still has promise, but after 14 years and $3 billion, this conflict-of-interest-plagued agency has little to show for it.

Prop 15 – NO – Property Tax Increase – Takes a sledgehammer to the classic Prop. 13, tearing down California’s one pillar of fiscal sanity. Raises taxes $11.5 billion per year. Kills even more small businesses. Destroys even more jobs. Further spikes the cost of living.

Prop 16 – NO – Government Preferences – Repeals a 1996 voter initiative that outlawed discrimination on the “basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin” in state universities and public hiring. An attempt by politicians to duck responsibility for failed K-12 education policies that have widened achievement gaps.

Prop 17 – NO – Parolee Voting Rights – Makes active voters out of active felons, letting them cast a ballot (or even run for office) before they complete parole.

Prop 18 – NO -17-Year-Old Voting – No need to allow minors to vote. Waiting can be tough, but they’ll get there.

Prop 19 – NO – Transfer Property Tax Base – Makes property tax protections more portable but less heritable: will lower your taxes if you move, but potentially raise them for your kids when they inherit your home.

Prop 20 – YES – Strengthens Penalties for Violent & Property Crimes – Makes crimes illegal, again. Partially reverses both Prop. 47, which empowered calculator-wielding thieves to repeatedly steal up to $950 of merchandise; and Prop. 57, which prematurely released “non-violent” domestic abusers, sex traffickers, and arsonists.

Prop 21 – NO – Rent Control – Rent control has failed miserably everywhere it’s been tried – including as an initiative on our 2018 ballot. It’s back with a new measure to further deplete our already feeble housing stock. Even Gavin Newsom is opposed.

Prop 22 – YES – Keep our Gig Economy Alive – Liberates drivers from AB 5, one of the most disgraceful laws in state history. If this fails, get excited about riding taxis again as hundreds of thousands of rideshare drivers will be out of work.

Prop 23 – NO – Dialysis Clinics Consent – Imposes senseless mandates that will raise costs and close clinics. Medical groups and patient advocates are unanimously opposed.

Prop 24 – NO – Consumer Privacy Law – 52 pages of confusing ways we can protect our ‘data privacy’. No thank you.

Prop 25 – NO – Repeal Money Bail – Replaces cash bail with a “risk assessment” algorithm for pre-trial release. In the best hands, this is not ready for prime time; in the technologically challenged hands of California government, it’s a disaster in the making.