Twelve of 16 local measures presented to San Bernardino County’s voters passed on November 8.
In Rialto, Measure A, put forth by the Rialto Unified School District to authorize the issuance of $340 million in bonds to update safety systems, renovate classrooms and make other facility upgrades at all campuses in the district, passed the 55 percent approval threshold with 7,443 votes or 69.59 percent in favor and 3,408 or 31.41 percent opposed. To debt service those bonds, homeowners will be required to pay on a yearly basis 6 cents per $100 of the assessed value of their homes for the next 27 years.
Measure D, voted on countywide, passed with 148,855 voter endorsements to 103,180 no votes, 59.06 percent to 40.94 percent. Measure D erases the reduction in the combined yearly salary and benefits of the individual members of the board of supervisors to $60,000 and further does away with limiting the supervisors to a single term, provisions that were added to the county charter by the passage of Measure K in 2020. Under Measure D, the supervisors will instead receive total annual compensation of $271,817.79. Measure D’s passage also allows those supervisors already in office to serve three more four-year terms and all future supervisors to serve three terms in office
Measure EE, voted upon countywide, authorized San Bernardino County officials to importune State of California officials to provide them with what the sponsor said is the county’s “fair share” of state and federal funds while simultaneously threatening to have San Bernardino County secede from the state if Sacramento is not forthcoming with that money. It passed, with 128,892 votes or 50.63 percent in favor and 125,696 pr 49.37 percent in opposition. Measure F, which was to lock in the agricultural zoning in San Timoteo Canyon and limit the height of buildings in Redlands, failed, with 5,815 voters or 38.52 percent of the voters in the City of Redlands approving it and 9,281 voters or 61.48 percent rejecting it. Measure F called for limiting buildings in the city to three stories or 43 feet in height, with a four story and 68-feet-in-height exception for those in the Alabama Street, California Street and New York Street Transit Villages and within a quarter of a mile from the rail station at the University Transit Village.
In Barstow, Measure H failed, with 939 voters or 41.4 percent favoring and 1,329 voters or 58.6 percent opposing dispensing with having a directly elected mayor in favor of having the city council make the choice of who should be the city’s political figurehead.
Measure II, which asked Montclair voters if they wanted to allow marijuana to be commercially available within the city, was ahead by a razor-thin margin, with 1,580 votes or 50.21 percent in favor while 1,567 voters or 49.79 percent just said, “No.”
Measure J, a referendum put to Redlands voters asking if the city should impose a tax of ten-and-one-half-cents per square foot of floor space within distribution centers in the city, had 8,136 votes or 52.97 percent of approval and 7,223 votes or 47.03 percent of rejection.
Measure K was passed by the voters in the Town of Yucca Valley with 3,053 votes or 72.21 percent in favor of raising the town’s transient occupancy tax, otherwise known as a hotel tax or bed tax, from its current 7 percent to 12 percent. The measure was opposed by 1,175 votes or 27.79 percent.
Upland’s voters rejected Measure L, the Upland City Council’s appeal for an additional 1 cent per dollar sales tax on purchases within the City of Gracious Living, with 6,185 voters or 44.8 percent willing to take on that burden and 7,621 or 55.2 percent saying, “No, thank you.”
Measure M, Grand Terrace’s 10 percent transient occupancy or hotel tax initiative, found support among 1,132 voters or 51.22 percent, with 1,078 or 48.78 percent against it.
In Needles, where there is already a transient occupancy tax in place, Measure N called for making it applicable to not only hotels and motels but also to short-term rentals. It passed with 475 votes or 66.16 percent in favor and 243 or 33.84 percent against.
Measure O called for limiting the number of vacation rental licenses within the City of Big Bear Lake to a maximum of 1,500 and holding the line on the number of vacation contracts to 30 per year per property, excluding home-sharing arrangements, while limiting duplexes, triplexes and quadriplexes to one vacation rental per property. It was defeated 587 votes in favor to 809 opposed, 42.05 percent to 54.95 percent.
A second voter initiative this year in Big Bear Lake was Measure P, which sought an increase in the transitory occupancy tax from 8 percent to 9 percent in 2024 and a further increase from 9 percent to 10 percent in 2025. 751 voters or 55.59 percent went along with it, while 600 or 44.41 percent voted against it.
Ontario’s voters approved Measure Q, which will add one percent to the sales tax collected in that city, with 9.542 or 55.26 percent voting for it and 7,725 or 44.74 percent against it.
Measure R asked the voters of Montclair to set a 7 percent tax on commercial marijuana or cannabis transactions in that city if city officials make a determination that those currently banned products can be sold within the city. It passed, with 2,194 voters or 69.78 percent saying yes and 950 or 30.22 percent against the tax.
In Colton, Measure S, which proposed levying a one percent transaction tax, a euphemism for sales tax, on customers of businesses throughout the city, was given approval, with 3,130 votes or 67.46 percent in support and 1,510 or 32.54 percent opposed.