Revenue Bonds Constitutional Amendment

Today the California Secretary of State declared the “Carry-Out Bags” initiative eligible for the 2016 ballot.

This is constitutional ammendment.

This initiative requires statewide voter approval before any revenue bonds can be issued or sold by the state for projects that are financed, owned, operated, or managed by the state or any joint agency created by or including the state, if the bond amount exceeds $2 billion. Prohibits dividing projects into multiple separate projects to avoid statewide voter approval requirement.

The summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government:

The fiscal effect on state and local governments is unknown and would vary by project. It would depend on:

1. the outcome of projects brought before voters
2. the extent to which the state relied on alternative approaches to the projects or alternative financing methods for affected projects
3. whether those methods have higher or lower costs than revenue bonds.(15-0003.)