Prop. 5 could unleash a flood of new affordable housing, road repairs, fire stations -- and tax hikes

Money for new fire stations, repaved roads, renovated libraries and more is on the ballot in the city of Santa Clara next month. Voters in the Silicon Valley suburb of 127,000 will decide if they’ll pony up for a $400-million bond measure to finance the improvements.

Californians have made hundreds of decisions like these over the decades, but this time there’s a twist. No one knows how many votes it will take to win.

The uncertainty comes from a quirk of California’s complicated electoral system. In years past, local bond campaigns like Santa Clara’s Measure I needed two-thirds support for passage. Now, a statewide ballot measure, Proposition 5, may change that.

If approved by a majority of California voters, Proposition 5 would decrease the approval threshold for local bonds from two-thirds to 55%, making it easier to fund low-income housing, expand roads and transit, renovate parks and construct other public infrastructure projects.



https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2024-10-04/proposition-5-could-unleash-a-flood-of-new-affordable-housing-road-repairs-fire-stations-and-tax-hikes