03/29/2024

Required vote for local tax increases in legal limbo

California’s booming economy is pouring many billions of additional tax dollars into state and local government treasuries.

Nevertheless, the locals – cities and school districts, especially – find themselves in an ever-tightening fiscal vise because mandatory payments into public employee pension funds are growing much faster than revenues.

That’s why dozens of them are asking their voters this year to approve new taxes, although they typically, for political reasons, don’t specify pensions as the reason.

Laws governing those tax elections, however, are in a state of legal flux.

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