Which pricey ballot measures will dominate your algorithms and streaming ad breaks this fall?
The one that would tax billionaires to prop up healthcare services?
How about the one Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to again boost affordable housing?
Or the one where Uber was ready to go to war with trial attorneys?
As CalMatters reporters explain, the deadline for initiatives to qualify is Thursday and negotiations are occurring behind closed doors as powerful interest groups work to strike last-minute deals that could spare them from having to shell out tens of millions of dollars on campaigns this fall.
Proposals that are eligible so far include the Republican-backed voter identification requirement and a billionaire tax championed by a major healthcare workers union.
Another initiative related to affordable housing is also poised to land on the ballot after Newsom and the Legislature reached a deal on a record-breaking $11.25 billion bond measure.
The bond would provide $10 billion to finance the construction, acquisition and preservation of affordable housing, while another $1.25 billion would help veterans buy homes.
The money could help more than 40,000 people buy a home, as well as create or preserve tens of thousands of affordable housing units, according to the Newsom administration. The Legislature still needs to pass the bill to put the bond proposal on the ballot, after which the governor is expected to sign it.
Meanwhile, Uber and personal injury lawyers avoided an expensive showdown between one another after both parties negotiated a deal that took their dueling measures off the table.
Since last fall, the ride-hailing service had poured millions into a proposed ballot measure that would have capped personal injury lawyers’ contingency fees and limit how much victims could recover for medical costs for all crashes in California — not just the ones involving Uber.
Attorney groups, as well as doctors and medical providers, fiercely opposed Uber’s proposal, initially responding with their own initiative to increase Uber’s liability for sexual misconduct against riders and drivers.
But both sides appear to have settled their dispute through a bill that would cap medical cost recoveries in cases that involve medical liens, but would not cap lawyers’ contingency fees. Uber, for its part, would have to strengthen background checks for drivers, including deplatforming drivers who have been convicted of certain violent offenses or were found guilty of driving under the influence.