Print Version (PDF)

Proposed Initiative Enters Circulation

Revenue Bonds. Statewide Voter Approval. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.

 SACRAMENTO – Secretary of State Alex Padilla today announced 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:

 REVENUE BONDS. STATEWIDE VOTER APPROVAL. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Requires statewide voter approval before any revenue bonds can be issued or sold by the state for projects that are financed, owned, operated, or managed by the state or any joint agency created by or including the state, if the bond amount exceeds $2 billion. Prohibits dividing projects into multiple separate projects to avoid statewide voter approval requirement. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: The fiscal effect on state and local governments is unknown and would vary by project. It would depend on (1) the outcome of projects brought before voters, (2) the extent to which the state relied on alternative approaches to the projects or alternative financing methods for affected projects, and (3) whether those methods have higher or lower costs than revenue bonds. (15-0003.)

 The Secretary of State’s tracking number for this measure is 1667 and the Attorney General’s tracking number is 15-0003.  

The proponent for the measure, Dean Cortopassi, must collect signatures of 585,407 registered voters (eight percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2014 gubernatorial election) in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponent has 180 days to circulate petitions for the measure, meaning the signatures must be submitted to county elections officials by September 10, 2015.  The proponent can be reached at (916) 446-6752. 

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

###