Anti-Business Ideas Defeated by CalChamber-Led Campaigns

• A split roll property tax that would have been the largest tax hike in state history (Proposition 15 of 2020).
• A flawed proposal to give one politician power to determine health care benefits and rates (Proposition 45 of 2014).
• An initiative that not only would have legalized marijuana use in California, but also would have created a legal quagmire for employers, compromised workplace safety
  and established a new class of protected workers in the state (2010).
• Anti-business tax hikes that would have increased gasoline prices and property taxes and attempted to stifle the ability of the business community to communicate with
  voters (2006).
• Higher taxes on high earners and small businesses to create a massive new pre-school bureaucracy (2006).
• Making it easier for the Legislature to increase taxes by eliminating the requirement that taxes be approved by a two-thirds vote (2 to 1 defeat in 2004).
• Multibillion-dollar health care tax (2004).
• Measures promoting additional litigation and more costly insurance (2000).

In 2012, voters agreed with CalChamber opposition to: a deeply flawed food labeling mandate (Proposition 37) that would have added more government bureaucracy, created new frivolous lawsuits and increased food costs by billions of dollars; and a plan to impose steep new taxes that would have had a heavy impact on small businesses and hurt economic growth (Proposition 38).

In 2014, voters also agreed with CalChamber opposition to a trial lawyer-sponsored effort to quadruple the longstanding limit on medical malpractice awards, which would have driven health care costs higher and pushed medical care professionals to quit or move out of state (Proposition 46).

In 2016, voters rejected a CalChamber-opposed initiative that would have delayed or stopped vitally needed infrastructure projects all over the state—including water reliability projects, road safety and bridge repairs, university and college buildings—as well as impeded the state’s ability to make emergency repairs after a natural disaster (Proposition 53).

CalChamber President and CEO Jennifer Barrera and key members of the CalChamber public policy team also lead ad hoc coalitions—as priority issues arise—on behalf of key industries, at the request of our members.