In a unanimous decision Thursday, the California Supreme Court blocked a referendum that would have required voters to approve increases to state and local taxes, the first time such a referendum has been passed in 25 years.
The bill, known as the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, would make it harder to raise or enact new taxes in the state and would require voter approval for any new taxes at the local and state levels.
The measure has already gathered enough signatures to be approved on the ballot and has support from the business community, including the California Business Roundtable, which argues the proposal is necessary to protect state taxpayers who believe they are being overtaxed.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, labor leaders and other Democratic leaders oppose the bill, and Newsom’s administration and Democratic lawmakers have filed a lawsuit to remove it from the ballot, arguing it would amend the state constitution and interfere with a fundamental function of government.
The unusual decision marks the first time in more than two decades that the Supreme Court has struck a measure from the ballot after a full hearing — in 1999 it struck a bill that would have limited state employee pay and shifted redistricting power away from the Legislature — but since then there have been several other instances of bills being struck down when sponsors failed to defend against legal challenges.
Critics questioned the intentions of the seven-member court, six of which were appointed by Democratic governors, three of whom were appointed by Newsom, and supporters of the initiative blasted the decision as a farce and a “stern blow to California’s direct democracy.”
The referendum, which had garnered 1.4 million signatures, will be set aside. The decision is an unusual one for the state Supreme Court, but it also represents the latest example of state interference in the referendum process.
In 2018, Democratic officials misleadingly titled Proposition 6, which would have repealed the state’s gas tax hike: They called it the “Elimination of Certain Road Repair and Transportation Funding” rather than the “Gas Tax Repeal Proposal.”
A Democrat-backed proposal to raise the threshold for approving anti-tax referendums will remain on the 2024 ballot.
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday The show airs Sunday nights from 7 to 10 p.m. (4 to 7 p.m. ET) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of his recently published e-book,Trumpian virtues: The lessons and legacy of Donald Trump’s presidency” is available on Audible. He is also the author of an e-book. Not Free or Fair: The 2020 US Presidential ElectionHe is the recipient of the Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship in 2018. Follow him on Twitter. Joel Pollack.
