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20BillionReasons
Lawsuit forces BAHFA to correct quarter billion dollar error in housing bond ballot measure
A group of California residents called 20BillionReasons filed a Writ of Mandate and Preliminary Injunction, opposing misleading and false wording and rebutting the claims and assertions made in the $20 billion regional housing bond measure, Regional Measure 4 (RM4).
The unprecedented size of the Bond Measure has drawn strong opposition from San Francisco Bay Area residents. And many community groups are arguing that giving these funds to an unelected and largely unaccountable regional agency with no strings attached will fail to produce truly affordable housing for those most in need.
This Measure was recently placed on the November 5 ballot by The Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA), a newly created, unelected, regional sub-agency of MTC that appears to duplicate (overrule?) ABAG and whose "Advisory Board" is made up of unelected city and county agency heads and developer representatives.
The 20BillionReasons lawsuit asserted that the wording of the Measure is slanted to deceive voters into voting in favor of it. The lawsuit asserts that the Measure contains a series of phrases that are not found in the language of the measure and designed to sway voter sentiment.
However, the legal standard is that a ballot question put before voters must be an accurate synopsis.
As the lawsuit argues,
"This measure would authorize the issuance of $20 billion in “affordable housing” bonds.This action challenges untrue, partial, argumentative, and/or prejudicial wording in the ballot question (also called “ballot label” or “statement of the measure”) in violation of the Elections Code sections 9051 and 13119(c) standards and false and/or misleading wording in the ballot label under the Elections Code sections 9190/9380/McDonough v. Superior Court (2012) 204 Cal.App.4th 1169 (“McDonough”) standard."
Attorney Jason Bezis sent BAHFA a letter last Friday demanding nine language changes to remove prejudicial language, including that the true annual cost of the measure is nearly 36% higher than the amount shown in the ballot question (Even the very name of the measure is deceptive: "Bay Area Affordable Plan.") and that this measure's additional taxes will make the Bay Area even less affordable.
In response, BAHFA held a special meeting of its Executive Committee on August 8, 2024. At that meeting, the Committee adopted General Counsel Kathleen Kane's recommendation.
"to correct the Ballot Question for Regional Measure 4 by deleting “$670,000,000” from the Ballot Question and replacing it with “$910,976,423”."
General Counsel Kane dismissed the $241 million deficiency between the stated costs in the ballot text and the real amount as a "mathematical error."
The Plaintiff's argued,
"How can the public trust an agency that can't do basic arithmetic with nearly $50 billion of its taxes?"
However, none of the other changes demanded were adopted.
By law, Regional Measure 4 is coordinated by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, so the Santa Clara County Superior Court is where this challenge was filed. The final language of the RM4 ballot question will now be determined by the court.
NEWS ALERT
BAHFA pulls Regional Ballot Measure 4 from the November Ballot
See www.NoOnRM4.com for further information. A copy of the lawsuit is attached, below.