The Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce released its positions on the ballot measures for the upcoming June election today. These positions were developed after careful review by the Chamber’s Advocacy Committee and are based on potential impact on member businesses and contributions to an improved business climate.

Based on those considerations, the Chamber has taken the following positions:

The Chamber supports Proposition 13 which bars property tax increases on construction for seismic retrofits. The Chamber believes in the importance of these retrofits but doesn’t believe property owners should be taxed as adding value to a property.

The Santa Rosa Chamber also supports Proposition 14 which would create an “open primary” system under which the top two vote getters would move to the general election. Such an approach will tend to decrease the amount of partisanship in races and result in elected officials who better represent the moderate views of California citizens.

The Chamber opposes Proposition 15 which would tax lobbyists to provide public funding for the Secretary of State election. The Chamber does so because this proposition violates the Constitution and because the Legislature has no legal authority to submit the provision to the voters for approval. Taxing an unpopular group of people (lobbyists) to pay for an election that few really care about (Secretary of State) is not a real step toward campaign reform, but allows the politicians who put it on the ballot to say that they tried to change the status quo.

The Chamber supports Measure D, the Sonoma County Civic Service Ordinance Amendment. The Chamber voted to support this measure because it will return accountability for the entire scope of human resources back to the Board of Supervisors and it will save the County money.

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