A Contra Costa County judge ruled last week that a ballot measure for voters on a new sales tax must be revised before the June 2nd elections.
The ruling comes after two county voters objected to the initiative as originally written, arguing that the language was misleading and argumentative.
The voters said the way the ballot question was originally posed sought to influence voters to support the proposed tax. The state’s election law mandates that language describing a ballot initiative should be neutral.
Last month, the county Board of Supervisors approved the ballot initiative, Measure B. It calls for a 0.625 percent sales tax to help compensate for federal budget cuts to health care.
The board’s language for the initiative described the federal budget cuts as “deep” and county services that would be bolstered by the tax as “critical.”
The judge ordered the county’s Board of Supervisors to revise the language for the ballot initiative.If approved by voters, Measure B would raise about 150 million dollars annually over five years.
