Prop 43 rewrites the rules of our democracy. Today, when your community votes to fund something local — affordable housing, a neighborhood school, a road repair, or your local fire department — the majority decides. Prop 43 changes that. It lets just over one-third of voters block what nearly two-thirds want. Under Prop 43, a NO vote counts twice as much as a YES. The winners are the corporate special interests who'd rather not pay their fair share.
Prop 43 undermines majority rule. Right now, local voters decide how to fund their own communities by majority vote. Prop 43 throws that out in order to let a determined minority of just 33.4% veto what everyone else wants. You could have two out of every three neighbors vote yes, and still lose.
Prop 43 ties your community's hands. It makes it harder for local voters to fund the services families count on like local schools, parks, and libraries to road repairs, local clinics and hospitals, and emergency response, even when a clear majority supports them. When funding is blocked, help arrives slower and our communities are left worse off.
Prop 43 doesn't cut your taxes. So who benefits? Corporate special interests and big developers who don't want to pay their fair share. Right now, voters can hold them accountable at the ballot box, but requiring a supermajority makes it easier for them to block anything that voters put forward to protect their communities. Prop 43 is designed to take voters power away, to protect the powerful few at everyone else's expense.
California families are already stretched to the breaking point. Across the state, communities have voted to build affordable homes for working families, seniors, and veterans to help renters stay housed and move people off the streets. Prop 43 hands a small minority the power to block those solutions, even when the majority supports them. In the middle of a housing crisis, that's the last thing we need.