More thoughts on the Nov. 5 election ballot measures:
• Measure Z: Voters in the city of Santa Cruz by about a 52%-48% margin (approximately 1,000 votes) have placed a tax of 2 cents per fluid ounce to the price of sugar-sweetened beverages sold in the city, as a relatively painless way to raise $1.3 million annually for city coffers. We recommended a No vote, calling it a “regressive tax” that will hurt lower-income families and noted that anyone wanting to purchase an untaxed sugar-sweetened beverage could go outside Santa Cruz city limits to do so.
Many small business owners in the city were adamantly against Z. Opposition to the measure was funded by the beverage industry (about $1.3 million) and supporters, led by three members of the Santa Cruz City Council, raised relatively paltry sums for the cause.
No matter, as voters gave the tax a go ahead, despite misgiving by some residents that the money collected will just disappear into the city budget. Santa Cruz joins other liberal cities — San Francisco, Berkeley and Boulder, Colorado — that already have a similar tax on the books,
But we’ll choose to trust the councilmembers — Sonja Brunner, Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson and Martine Watkins — that the appointed community oversight board will ensure Measure Z funds go toward tested and measurable health initiatives.
• Measure Q: Not surprisingly, Measure Q, the county Land Trust backed wildfire and water protection property tax, easily gained countywide voter approval, with about 59% of votes counted so far. County voters also were overwhelmingly in favor of Proposition 4, another environmentally based bond, with about 66% Yes votes.
We recommended No votes on both, realizing both would probably easily pass as just the words “environment” and “climate change” ensure spending measures success statewide.
On Measure Q, we said it was “too broad” and too aimed at benefiting the Land Trust and that it also further increased high taxes on property owners in the county. On Prop. 4 we said it was “fiscally irresponsible” because it will fund environmental projects “designed to placate political constituencies rather than ensure efficient and effective allocation of precious funds.”
Voters obviously disagreed.
• Minimum wage: Proposition 32, the statewide ballot measure to raise the hourly minimum wage from $16 to $18, looks as if it has failed. Despite no official call by the Associated Press, opponents of the measure claimed victory Tuesday as the measure was trailing 50.8% to 49.2%, or about 250,000 votes.
Opponents said there aren’t enough votes left to change the result. Prop. 32 supporters, however, were not conceding, noting there are about 695,000 ballots left to count statewide.
We recommended a No vote on 32, calling the measure “a flawed way to deal with deeper problems that will not be solved by simply mandating a higher wage” and that state lawmakers in 2023 passed two laws to raise the hourly wages of fast food and health care workers.
But, again unsurprisingly, county voters disagreed, voting for the measure by a 62%-38% margin. The high cost of living in Santa Cruz County undoubtedly contributed to this outcome.
• Medical funding: Proposition 34 was winning statewide 50.8% to 49.2% as of Tuesday, but also hadn’t been called by the AP. The measure, which would require certain health care providers to spend most of their revenue from a federal prescription drug discount program on patient care, targets the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has been funding local rent control measures, including Proposition 33.
County voters turned down Prop. 33, but did not support Prop. 34, voting against it by a nearly 46% No, to 54% Yes margin.
We recommended a No Vote on 33, saying that “expanding rent control would only exacerbate the state’s housing crisis,” and also urged a Yes vote on 34, which we said would counteract the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s “deliberately misleading use of AIDS funds.”
Proposition 35, the Medi-Cal funding measure, which we called “more special-interest, ballot-box budgeting,” gained the support of nearly 77% of county voters and 68% of voters statewide.