Chamber Makes Recommendations on Ballot Measures

Based on recommendations of the Emerging Issues Committee, the Board of Directors of the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce considered the following ballot measures on November 8th ballot.  For those measures deemed to be business related, the following positions were adopted:

 Proposition 51 -- SUPPORT
School Bonds.  Funding for K12 School and Community Facilities. Initiative Statutory Amendment.  Authorizes $9 billion in general obligation bonds: $3 billion for new construction and $3 billion for modernization of K-12 public school facilities; $1 billion for charter schools and vocational education facilities; and $2 billion for California Community Colleges facilities.
 
Proposition 52 -- SUPPORT
State Fees on Hospitals. Federal Medi-Cal Matching Funds. Initiative Statutory and Constitutional Amendment. Increases required vote to two-thirds for the Legislature to amend a certain existing law that imposes fees on hospitals (for purpose of obtaining federal Medi-Cal matching funds) and that directs those fees and federal matching funds to hospital-provided Medi-Cal health care services, to uncompensated care provided by hospitals to uninsured patients, and to children’s health coverage.
 
Proposition 53 – NO POSITION
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.
 
Proposition 54 -- SUPPORT
Legislature. Legislation and Proceedings. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute. Prohibits Legislature from passing any bill unless it has been in print and published on the Internet for at least 72 hours before the vote, except in public emergency. Requires Legislature to make audiovisual recordings of all proceedings, except closed sessions, and post them on the Internet.
 
Proposition 55 – NO POSITION
Tax Extension to Fund Education and Healthcare. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. Extends by 12 years the temporary personal income tax increases enacted in 2012 on earnings over $250,000 (for single filers; over $500,000 for joint filers; over $340,000 for heads of household).
 
Proposition 58 – NO POSITION
English language education. SB 1174 (Lara; D-Bell Gardens; Chapter 753, Statutes of 2014). Amends and repeals various provisions of Proposition 227, approved by voters in June 1998 and requiring among other things, that all children in California public schools be taught English by being taught in English. Proposition 58, among other things, deletes the sheltered English immersion requirement and waiver provisions, and instead provides that school districts and county offices of education shall, at a minimum, provide English learners with a structured English immersion program, as specified. The proposition also authorizes parents or legal guardians of pupils enrolled in the school to choose a language acquisition program that best suits their child, as provided.
 
Proposition 65 – OPPOSE
Carry-Out Bags. Charges. Initiative Statute. Redirects money collected by grocery and certain other retail stores through sale of carry-out bags, whenever any state law bans free distribution of a particular kind of carry-out bag and mandates the sale of any other kind of carry-out bag. Requires stores to deposit bag sale proceeds into a special fund administered by the Wildlife Conservation Board to support specified categories of environmental projects.
 
Proposition 67 -- SUPPORT
Referendum to Overturn Ban on Single-Use Plastic Bags. The challenged law must be approved by a majority of voters to go into effect. The law prohibits grocery and certain other retail stores from providing single-use bags but permits sale of recycled paper bags and reusable bags.
  
Measure A -- SUPPORT
SanDAG Sales Tax for Transportation.  Shall an ordinance be adopted to:  repair roads, deteriorating bridges; relieve congestion; provide every community funds for pothole/street repairs; expand public transit, including improved services for seniors, disabled, students, veterans; reduce polluted runoff; preserve open space to protect water quality/reduce wildfires by enacting, with independent oversight/audits, a 40-year, half-cent local sales tax that Sacramento cannot take away. 
 
Measure MM -- SUPPORT
MiraCosta Community College Bonds.  MiraCosta College job training, college transfer, veteran support measure,  To upgrade classrooms and career training facilities for science, healthcare, technology, advanced manufacturing, other growing local industries, provide job training/placement to Navy/Marines/other veterans, improve access to affordable higher education to local students, improve disabled access, repair, construct, acquire classrooms, facilities, sites/equipment, shall MiraCosta Community College District issue $455,000,000 in bonds, at legal rates, subject to local control, requiring annual audits, and independent citizen oversight?