Proposition 39 was aninitiative stateconstitutional amendment andstatute which appeared on theNovember 7, 2000, California general election ballot. Proposition 39 passed with 5,431,152Yes votes, representing 53.4 percent of the total votes cast.[1] Proposition 39 was essentially a milder version of Proposition 26, which would have ended theProposition 13 supermajority vote requirement altogether (imposing a simple majority vote requirement),[2] but was defeated with 3,521,327 "Yes" votes, representing 48.7 percent of the total votes cast, in the March 7, 2000,Californiaprimary election.[3] The measure was funded byAnn and John Doerr,John T. Walton andReed Hastings; it was opposed by theHoward Jarvis Taxpayers Association.[4]
The main effect of Proposition 39 was to amendProposition 13 by lowering the requiredsupermajority vote necessary for voters to approvelocal school bonds, from two-thirds (2/3) of the votes cast, to fifty-five percent (55%) of the votes cast.[5]
Voter approved school bonds under Proposition 39 are paid off by raising property taxes above the one percent (1%) property tax rate limit established byProposition 13 in 1978.
Proposition 39 also lowered, as it relates to school bonds, the local voter approval requirement to incur debt from a two-thirds (2/3) vote to fifty-five percent (55%). The two-thirds vote requirement to incur debt is separate from the property tax limits ofProposition 13, and had previously been part of theCalifornia Constitution since 1879.
Proposition 39 further included statutory provisions relating tocharter school facilities.
