Planetizen Newswire
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State Ballot Measures
The 3 cent gas tax and 6 cent diesel tax increases are among the lowest of any states that have hiked fuel taxes since 2013, but combined with other revenue sources in the legislation, plus an upcoming sales tax ballot measure, it's historic.
Talk Business & Politics
It was not your basic fuel tax hike. Utah voters were told that raising the tax would help education by redirecting revenue from the General Fund to schools that currently goes to transportation. Yet voters also passed decidedly liberal initiatives.
Deseret News
Missouri legislators approved a bill at the end of the legislative session to place a 10-cents per gallon gas tax increase on the ballot to fund road repair. It had the support of Gov. Mike Parson but was rejected by nearly 54 percent of voters.
FOX 4 News
Californians will determine whether to repeal recent fuel tax and user fee increases; Missourians to vote on a 10-cent gas tax hike over 4 years; Coloradans whether to hike the sales tax, and the most interesting measure will be decided in Utah.
Governing
California voters in November will have the opportunity to help repair the Friant-Kern Canal, damaged by subsidence, as well as invest in watershed conservation programs, by passing a citizen-initiated $8.9 billion general obligation bond measure.
The Sacramento Bee
The revenue bonds would be funded from a millionaires' surtax, approved by voters in 2004, to pay for health programs, but not housing, for the mentally ill. Also on ballot: a $4 billion general obligation bond measure to fund housing for veterans.
Los Angeles Times
California voters will likely decide on whether to repeal a 12-cents gas tax increase while Missouri voters will decide whether to increase the state's 17-cents per gallon gas tax, fourth lowest in the nation, by 10-cents per gallon over four years.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
With national media focused on individual candidates, propositions that dealt with park and water bonds, transportation spending, cap-and-trade, and rainwater may have been overlooked. Plus, a measure to increase bridge tolls in the Bay Area.
The Sacramento Bee
Only one of the five propositions on California's June primary ballot is a general obligation bond measure. Prop. 68 authorizes $4 billion for projects benefiting parks and water quality. Opponents prefer a pay-as-you-go approach using general funds.
The Mercury News
Voters looking for a reason to vote against Prop 72, which provides a tax break for homeowners who install rainwater capture systems, won't find one. None were submitted. Proponents of measures for parks, climate, and transportation are not so lucky.
KQED Science
The measure would repeal the 1996 Costa-Hawkins Act that places limits on rent control ordinances. Repealing the act would allow cities with rent control to consider expanding rent control to provide tenants greater protections.
San Francisco Chronicle
In a landmark, unanimous vote, the Texas Transportation Commission eliminated all 15 express lane projects from their 10-year capital plan despite pleas from Austin area officials to retain the $8 billion, I-35 project that includes four toll lanes.
Austin American-Statesman
To secure needed votes to pass a vital cap-and-trade bill, Brown made a deal with California's Republican lawmakers that could cost him his legacy infrastructure project—the high-speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
San Francisco Chronicle
More than the president was decided. Results are in on a Washington carbon tax, a California plastic bag ban, a Sunshine State restriction on solar panels, and on a ban on oil drilling in a California county that actually has oil drilling.
Planetizen
Feature
Beyond the headline-grabbing presidential election, many states and localities voted on issues critical to the planning profession.
While Florida may well determine who becomes the next president, renewable energy advocates are worried about a measure on the ballot that will have far-reaching effects on solar power should it pass.
Grist
If climate change is among the world's most pressing environmental issues, then Initiative 732 in Washington state should be watched by all concerned with the future of the planet. PBS NewsHour explores why the initiative is so controversial.
PBS NewsHour
Ten newspapers have joined California Gov. Jerry Brown in opposing Proposition 51, a $9 billion bond ballot measure endorsed by both Democrats, including the lieutenant governor, and Republicans.
Planetizen
A California initiative has been likened to the landmark Proposition 13 for how it would affect the budget and major projects proposed in California, including the $64 billion high-speed rail project and $17 billion Delta water tunnels.
San Jose Mercury News
It's been exactly a year since the state approved a 3-cent increase in the gas tax with hard fought legislation that ties future increases to inflation. However, the automatic indexing of the gas tax may be undone by voters on November 4.
Tax Foundation
