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Utility District Initiative Enters Circulation

Electricity. Initiative Statute.

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced that the proponent of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for his measure.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials. The Attorney General's official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

ELECTRICITY. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Establishes publicly-owned California Electrical Utility District to provide electric service, replacing most investor-owned utilities, such as PG&E, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Bear Valley Electric. Exempts publicly-owned electric utilities, unless they voluntarily elect to join. Requires the District be divided into 11 wards, approximately equal in population. Establishes an 11 member board of directors—one member per ward—each elected for 4-year terms. Grants the District the power to acquire property, construct facilities necessary to supply electricity, set electricity rates, impose taxes, and issue bonds. Fiscal impact:It is the opinion of the Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance that the measure would result in a substantial net change in state and local finances. (12-0017.)

The Secretary of State's tracking number for this measure is 1588 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 12-0017.

The proponent for the measure, Ben Davis, Jr., must collect signatures of 504,760 registered voters – the number equal to five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 gubernatorial election – in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponent has 150 days to circulate petitions for the measure, meaning the signatures must be collected by July 1, 2013.

The initiative proponent can be reached at (916) 833-7894.

To sign up for regular ballot measure updates via email, RSS feed, or Twitter, go to www.sos.ca.gov/multimedia.

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