By HOWARD FINE
California’s November ballot is shaping up to be one of the most crucial in years for business.
Besides a stark choice for governor, the ballot is set to contain nearly a dozen measures that could have sweeping impacts on the state’s business climate for years to come.
Grabbing the headlines have been the four bond measures that would raise $37 billion for much-needed public works projects, including highways, shipping, schools, housing and levee repair.
Business groups, including Orange County’s New Majority, pushed to get the bond measures on the ballot and are expected to endorse them.
Other initiatives are drawing attention. Among them: measures hiking taxes on cigarettes, oil and property; a proposal sharply limiting government seizures of private property; and a public campaign financing initiative that would clamp down on corporate contributions.
“There have been ballots with big measures aimed at business before, but I don’t recall one with so many measures across such a wide range of areas that have the potential to dramatically impact specific industries or the state’s business climate,” said Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce in Sacramento.
There are so many measures that many business groups have gotten off to an early start taking positions on them, just weeks after the polls closed for the primary election.
The Orange County Business Council’s government affairs committee is expected to ask the Irvine-based business group to formally back the governor’s four measures next week, according to Todd Priest, the council’s vice president of government and community affairs.
The New Majority, a moderate Republican group that’s one of the biggest backers of the governor, is expected to back the bond measures. Individual members are likely to support them with donations.
Business groups will be forced to spend tens of millions of dollars staking out their positions during the fall campaign, less than a year after they raised nearly $50 million for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s special election initiatives that failed last year.
The four measures include $20 billion for highway, mass transit and port-related projects, $10.4 billion for schools, $4 billion for levee repair and flood control and $2.8 billion for affordable housing.
A separate bond that qualified for the ballot would allocate $5.4 billion to clean up water supplies and improve state parks.
When first placed on the ballot in May, the infrastructure bond package was expected to win easy approval from voters, especially with Gov. Schwarzenegger and Democrat legislative leaders all promising to campaign for it.
But the defeat of a $600 million library bond earlier this month and poll results showing tepid support for the affordable housing bond could signal a tough campaign for these proposals.
For more on this story, see the July 3 edition of the Business Journal.
