California voters on Tuesday gave their blessings to the only two state legislature measures on the ballots: Propositions 41 (Veterans housing) and 42 (open records) passed with over a 50% approval rating. The measures will aid low-income veterans with housing and make government records more public, respectively.
According to the Los Angeles Times polling data, Proposition 41 received 66% of the vote, and 42 received 62%. The state legislature’s measure will allocate $600 million towards affordable housing for veterans and their families in the form of low-interest loans. Some of that money will also be devoted towards transitional housing for homeless vets, the Times notes.
But Prop 41 was sold with some false advertising, according to the Times. While it was being purported as a costless government program, it is actually going to cost $750 million over 15 years.
Proposition 42’s approval will make information more available to the public and transfer the cost of holding open meetings from the state to local governments. What it means is that essentially the state will longer be required to pay local governments for costs to follow state laws that give public access to local government information, according to smartvoter.org.
It reduces the state’s payments to local governments by tens of millions of dollars annually. The measure received bipartisan support but was opposed by the Green Party, which advocates the state continuing to reimburse local entities for costs incurred due to the California Public Records Act, according to KPBS.org. The party also believes that the state far too often shifts the burden of responsibility to local governments without reimbursing them.
Photo: Joel B. Pollak/Breitbart News
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