Political Landscape: Newport chamber lists positions on ballot propositions

The Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce is taking stances in favor of four upcoming state ballot propositions and against one.

The chamber’s Government Affairs Committee offers the following positions on these measures on the June 5 ballot:

Prop. 68 ($4-billion bond for water, parks and environmental projects): No. The chamber says this measure “adds to the state’s already overblown debt and burdens taxpayers with 40 years of payments to support projects that should be funded by existing tax revenue. If the governor and the Legislature deemed these projects important enough, they can use the current $9-billion budget surplus to fund them.”

Prop. 69 (restrict use of some motor vehicle fees and related taxes to transportation purposes): Yes

Prop. 70 (require a one-time two-thirds vote in each house of the Legislature to pass a spending plan for revenue from the state’s emissions cap-and-trade program): Yes. The chamber says this plan promotes bipartisanship.

Prop. 71 (move the effective date of ballot propositions from the day after election day to the fifth day after the election results are verified): Yes

Prop. 72 (exclude rainwater capture systems from property tax reassessments): Yes. “Californians that want to invest in rainwater capture systems should not be discouraged from doing so because their property tax would increase as a result,” the chamber says. “This exclusion would be supportive of the goal to increase water supplies in the state.”