Election 2024: CA Props Explained

Prop 2

Proposition 2 would provide $8.5 billion to K-12 schools and $1.5 billion to community colleges to renovate, fix and construct facilities. The money would be distributed through matching grants, with the state paying a greater share of costs for less affluent districts and those with higher numbers of English learners and foster youth. Some of the money would be set aside for removing lead from water, creating transitional kindergarten classrooms and building career and technical education facilities.

Vote YES if you want to authorize the state to borrow $10 billion to repair K-12 schools and community colleges.
Vote NO if you do not want to authorize the state to borrow $10 billion to repair K-12 schools and community colleges.

Prop 3

Should California reaffirm the right of same-sex couples to marry? Proposition 3 would enshrine the right to same-sex marriage into the California constitution, repealing Proposition 8 — a measure approved by voters in 2008 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. In practice, the ballot measure would not change who can marry.

Vote YES if you want to update the language in the California constitution to match who can currently marry, which includes same-sex couples.
Vote NO if you do not want to update the California Constitution to include marriage equality.

Prop 6

Should California limit forced labor in state prisons? Proposition 6 would amend the California Constitution to prohibit the state from punishing inmates with involuntary work assignments and from disciplining those who refuse to work. Instead, state prisons could set up a volunteer work assignment program to take time off sentences in the form of credits. It would let county or city ordinances set up a pay scale for inmates in local jails. The measure’s potential costs remain unknown and a point of contention, though a related law says compensation would be set by the state corrections department.

Vote YES if you want to prohibit involuntary servitude as a punishment for a crime.
Vote NO if you do not want to prohibit involuntary servitude as a punishment for a crime.

Prop 32

Should California raise the state minimum wage to $18 an hour? Proposition 32 would raise the minimum wage to $17 for the remainder of 2024, and $18 an hour starting in January 2025 — a bump from the current $16. Small businesses with 25 or fewer employees would be required to start paying at least $17 next year, and $18 in 2026. If voters say “yes,” California will have the nation’s highest state minimum wage.

Vote YES if you want to require most California employers to pay at least $17 an hour immediately, and $18 in January.
Vote NO if you want to leave the state minimum wage at $16 an hour.

Prop 33

Should California allow local governments to impose rent controls? Many cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, limit the amount a landlord can raise the rent each year — a policy known as rent control. But for nearly 30 years, California has imposed limits on those limits, via a law known as Costa-Hawkins. Cities cannot set rent control on single-family homes or apartments built after 1995. And landlords are free to set their own rental rates when new tenants move in. If Proposition 33 passes, that would change. Cities would be allowed to control rents on any type of housing – including single-family homes and new apartments, and for new tenants.

Vote YES if you want California cities to expand rent control.
Vote NO if you do not want to change how rent control is regulated in California.

Prop 36

Proposition 36 would reclassify some misdemeanor theft and drug crimes as felonies. The measure would also create a new category of crime — a “treatment-mandated felony.” People who don’t contest the charges could complete drug treatment instead of going to prison, but if they don’t finish treatment, they still face up to three years in prison.

Vote YES if you want to increase the penalties for some theft and drug crimes.
Vote NO if you do not want to increase the penalties for some theft and drug crimes.