California Supreme Court Upholds Existing Standards for Public Expenditures on Local Ballot Measures
The
Supreme Court's recent decision in
Vargas v. City of Salinas reaffirms the Court's holding in
Stanson v. Mott (1976) 17 Cal.3d 206, and maintains existing limitations on the expenditure of
public funds for materials and activities related to ballot measures. Although the Court rejected the adoption of a proposed bright-line test that would have permitted
public expenditures for all communications that were not express advocacy, it provided some useful new general guidance beyond that in
Stanson. It also provided helpful specific examples both of acceptable publicly funded communications--by approving the specific expenditures by the City of Salinas at issue in the lawsuit--and of unacceptable communications --by expressly disapproving communications from other cases and from a recent California election. --from Public Law news.
