The CalChamber poll, The People’s Voice, 2023, found that California voters have grown more anxious and pessimistic about living in California. Moreover, a majority of voters polled say Sacramento policies have “worsened” the condition of the state.
Voters rate economic and cost-of-living issues at the top of their concerns, and wish elected officials spent more time addressing those issues.
Property Tax Reforms
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The Proposition 13 property tax reforms remain strongly popular among voters, with 83% reporting a favorable view of the measure, and 44% “very favorable.” Recently, the Legislature placed on next year’s ballot a proposal to reduce the local vote requirement for property and sales tax increases for local public works projects from two-thirds to 55%. Voters disagreed with the proposal by a 41% to 37% margin.
Voters are disinclined to re-elect a legislator who messes with Proposition 13, with 59% saying they would be less likely to re-elect a legislator who voted to place on the ballot the measure that would reduce the local vote requirement for higher taxes.
Health Care
Single-payer health care has been resurrected as an issue in the Legislature. With this in mind, 87% of voters report that they are satisfied with their health insurance (asked of those with insurance), and 45% report that they are “very satisfied.”
Among those with private health insurance, 78% respond that they would rather keep their private insurance, as opposed to switching to a government-run single-payer approach.
Labor Law Reform
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On the ballot in November 2024 will be a measure to change how labor laws are enforced in California. It would require Labor Code violations to be handled by independent state regulators, direct 100% of penalties be paid to employees and double penalties for employers who willfully violate labor laws.
Voters support this measure, also known as Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) reform, by a 62% to 16% margin.
Asked further what would be the better way to deal with Labor Code violations, nearly half (49%) of voters surveyed preferred independent state regulators, while 21% preferred trial attorneys.
The CalChamber poll was conducted by Bold Decision and Pierrepont Consulting & Analytics with online interviews from October 2-8, 2023 with 1,002 online interviews of California likely 2024 general election voters. The margin of error for this study is +/- 3.1% at the 95% confidence level. This is the ninth year CalChamber has published The People’s Voice survey.
- The People’s Voice: State Voters Pessimistic About Living in California (10/31/2023)
- The People’s Voice: Voter Beliefs About Their Future in California (11/1/2023)
- People’s Voice: Affordability, Crime Among Top Voter Concerns (11/2/2023)
- People’s Voice: Views on Property Tax, Health Care, Labor Law Reform (11/3/2023)