California voters will get to decide in November if it should be harder to pass tax measures at the local level. A “special tax” is one that earmarks the revenue for specific purposes. If courts had enforced that plain language, Californians today would not be paying billions of dollars in local taxes. In San Francisco, courts upheld a June 2018 special tax on commercial real estate leases to fund early education and child care, and a November 2018 special tax on the gross receipts of businesses to pay for homelessness programs. Those same officials undoubtedly benefit from having a court-created loophole to raise special taxes without the need for a two-thirds vote.