![\""Firefighters\"](\""https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM__CM_34.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1"\")
\n\t\t\t\tFirefighters at the Park Fire command post in Chico on Aug. 2, 2024, shortly after returning from a more than 24-hour shift fighting the nearby flames. Photo by Florence Middleton, CalMatters<\/p>\n
By Sandra Lowe, Special for CalMatters<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tFirefighters at the Park Fire command post in Chico on Aug. 2, 2024, shortly after returning from a more than 24-hour shift fighting the nearby flames. Photo by Florence Middleton, CalMatters<\/p>\n
This commentary was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n California voters will get to decide in November if it should be harder to pass tax measures at the local level. Below, a city councilmember from Sonoma believes Proposition 43<\/a> enables minority rule, making it harder to fund vital government functions. The opposing view: An anti-tax advocate says Prop. 43 solidifies a constitutional amendment passed decades ago<\/a> that the courts muddied.<\/p>\n Guest Commentary written by<\/p>\n Sometimes things that sound simple are not.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take Proposition 43<\/a>. Buried in the list of ballot questions this November that could shape our tax code and California\u2019s progress is an effort to strike a blow to the most fundamental democratic principle which guides our local governments’ decisions: majority rule.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Local government is elected by majority, pass policy by majority, approve construction projects by majority and, yes, pass taxes by majority.<\/p>\n Prop. 43 raises the threshold for local tax measures from a simple majority to two-thirds, allowing the minority to win. It must be rejected.<\/p>\n In Sonoma County, one of the highest fire-risk areas in California, the citizens passed Measure H<\/a> in 2024. Measure H raises revenue through a half-cent sales tax to support emergency services. The dedicated funding ensures sustainable fire response, expanded paramedic availability and aggressive wildfire prevention. In addition to my role as a Sonoma city councilwoman, I serve on the Measure H oversight committee.<\/p>\n Last year we were able to expand 24\/7 emergency medical response teams, implement vegetation management, provide emergency response during flooding, update fire engines, provide more protective gear, install new technologies to improve firefighting capabilities and initiate community education programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n If Prop. 43 was law two years ago, none of that would have happened \u2014 even with almost 62% of the vote<\/a>.<\/p>\n The largest portion of local budgets is public safety. Fire, sheriff and police services are the basics. We don\u2019t have to look too far in our recent history to find catastrophic events which demanded the expert heroic services of our first responders. <\/p>\n No one wants to see response times increase. No one wants to surplus an ambulance or a fire engine.\u00a0Sonoma County, Altadena, Pacific Palisades \u2014 these are not rarities in a world where climate disasters are frequent.<\/p>\n Local governments must not lose the ability to fund vital functions.<\/p>\n The broad range of services Californians are accustomed to receiving could be slashed. Prop. 43\u2019s unfair threshold would have doomed measures such as Alameda County\u2019s 2025 measure for healthcare funding<\/a> and Santa Clara\u2019s June measure for open space preservation<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Citizens have high expectations for local government. They expect us to deliver a wide range of services. Prop. 43 would tie the hands of local governments statewide, allowing a slim minority to determine the outcomes of ballot issues and disenfranchise voters. Prop. 43 would take us backward and begin round after round of service cuts, potentially making California less protected from disasters and more vulnerable to crime.<\/p>\n Majority rule is the basis of our democracy and a hallmark of a free society. Let’s not go backward.<\/p>\n This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Sandra Lowe, Special for CalMatters Firefighters at the Park Fire command post in Chico on Aug. 2,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,964,35072,1709,3628,1694],"class_list":["post-429748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-commentary","tag-election-2026","tag-exclude-module","tag-sonoma-county","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}