Contra Costa County 2020

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.

Measure X is a sales tax measure that’s expected to generate $81 million dollars a year for the next 20 years. If it passes, sales tax would increase by half a percent on most goods, but not on necessities like food and medicine. That would bring Contra Costa’s sales-tax rate up to around 10 percent.

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all

Currently, California uses a cash bail system, for those awaiting trial in jail. But, many advocacy groups have long criticized cash bail, arguing it targets low income people who aren’t able to pay these bonds. In 2016, California Senator Robert Hertzberg introduced Senate Bill 10, or SB 10 — a bill that would end cash bail in California and replace it with a “risk assessment” system based on the likelihood that the person awaiting trial will fail to appear in court.

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.

Proposition 24 is about consumer data privacy laws in California. And it’s a complicated one.

Two years ago, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the California Consumer Privacy Act, or the CCPA. It was the first state law in the country to protect consumers’ personal information. 

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.

California’s Proposition 23 is the latest round in an ongoing fight between labor unions and two major dialysis corporations. You may recall 2018’s Proposition 8, which would have required those companies to offer refunds for overcharging many of their patients. It failed after opponents spent more than $111 million to fight it. 

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.

Proposition 22 is the “app-based drivers as contractors” initiative.

Remember AB5? The so-called “gig worker bill” that was signed into law last year in California? That law aimed to remove ambiguities around whether gig workers could be classified as independent contractors or employees. And, while it applied to all types of freelancers, the bill was largely seen as going after Uber and Lyft to get them to provide healthcare and other benefits to their drivers. 

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.

Proposition 21 is also known as The Rental Affordability Act, or RAA, and seeks to expand rent control across the state.

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.

In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the extreme overcrowding in California state prisons was unconstitutional. In response, three criminal justice reforms were enacted. 

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.

Basically, Proposition 19 would allow homeowners to move into a nicer place without their tax bill ballooning.

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.  

Proposition 18 proposes to allow 17-year-olds to vote in a primary election if the voter will turn 18 by the time of the general election.

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.

Proposition 17 would let people who are on parole for felony convictions vote — that’s more than 50,000 people.

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.  

In a nutshell, Proposition 16 is about repealing Proposition 209, which passed back in 1996.

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.

California’s Proposition 15 is an amendment to the state constitution that would update how the state assesses property taxes. 

This is a 2-minute summary of what’s on the ballot. Click here to listen to them all.

In 2004, Californians approved a $3 bllion bond to fund stem cell research. That money has been pretty much used up and the original backers want to replenish it. Prop 14 is a five-point $5 billion bond to pay for future stem cell research, training, and trials.