On June 20, 2024, the California Supreme Court ruled that the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act cannot appear on the general election ballot in November.

The business and taxpayer association-sponsored initiative would have imposed significant hurdles to public entities’ attempts to raise revenue, including reclassifying many local government fees as taxes, raising thresholds for approval of local taxes, and requiring voter approval of certain revenue raising efforts where voter approval was not previously required.

The Legislature, Governor Gavin Newsom, and former Senate President Pro Tempore John Burton sued to stop the measure from appearing on the ballot. They argued that the measure is an invalid constitutional revision because it would impose far-reaching changes to the existing processes public entities use to raise revenue that would fundamentally impair government function, including adding onerous requirements to the process public entities use to raise revenue under Prop. 218 and Prop. 26. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court sided with the Legislature and the Governor, and ordered Secretary of State Shirley Weber to refrain from placing the initiative on the ballot for the November state-wide election.

Justice Goodwin Liu concluded that the Legislature and the Governor “have clearly established that the challenged measure would revise the Constitution without complying with the appropriate procedure” and that changes like those proposed by the measure “must be undertaken in a manner commensurate with their gravity: through the process for revision set forth in article XVIII of the Constitution.” The Court further held that preelection review was appropriate because the measure amounted to a constitutional revision rather than an amendment.

This decision is the first time since 1999 that the Court has removed a measure from the ballot.