Ballot Measures

The test we apply.

FAIRPAC's work runs to both halves of the ballot. We may support or oppose candidates, and we may support or oppose ballot measures — the propositions, bonds, levies, and charter changes that decide as much of local life as any officeholder does. A measure is a policy put straight to the voters, so it faces the same test as any other policy and the same test we apply to the people who seek office. There is no separate, easier standard for a measure we happen to like.

First: the four questions

Every idea we weigh — from whatever quarter it comes — has to pass the four questions set out in Our Standards. A measure is no exception.

First

Good Stewardship

Does it respect people's time, money, and hard work — or waste them? What it costs, who pays, and whether the money is accounted for in the open.

Second

Peace & Order

Does it help a community hold together, or pull it apart? We favor what brings people into harmony over what breeds conflict and division.

Third

Truth That Holds

Is it built on what's real and can be tested — or on slogans and wishful thinking? We read the text of a measure, not the mood around it.

Fourth

Moral Foundations

Does it honor the basic sense of right and wrong — human dignity, honesty, fairness — that nearly every faith, and every conscience, recognizes?

Then: four questions a measure raises on its own

A measure writes law directly, so we ask four more — each one already the site's standing doctrine, applied here.

The Individual

Whose part does it enlarge?

Every position we hold names the individual's part and government's part. A measure should widen a person's power to govern their own life and property — not dissolve them into a managed collective.

The Republic

Does it refine the republic from the bottom up?

A republic is built of smaller republics — the person, the family, the town, the district. Every measure either thickens self-government at that root or thins it. We favor the one that leaves the smallest competent body more capable of governing itself than it was before.

The Direction

Roots up, not branches down.

Government belongs as close to the individual as it can competently sit. A measure that moves a decision upward — away from the town, district, or county that has to live with it — carries the burden of proving no smaller body can do the job. A measure that pushes authority back down toward the people it touches starts with our favor.

The Word Itself

Is it fair in the plain sense?

Impartial and honest; the same rules for everyone; an equitable exchange for what it asks; measured by merit. Never forced sameness dressed up as fairness.

How we read a measure: we read the operative text and what it would actually do — not the title, not the ballot argument, and not who is paying for the campaign on either side. A measure is scored on principle, never on party, and never on whose side it embarrasses.

How we tell you: when FAIRPAC takes a position, it is posted on this page with the reasoning that produced it and the standard it was measured against — support and opposition held to exactly the same burden. Where we take no position, we say so; silence here is not a quiet endorsement.

Where We Stand

Current positions.

Measures FAIRPAC is actively supporting or opposing in a pending election, with the reasoning for each.

Oppose · Vote No

Measure CC

Marin Healthcare District – Emergency Healthcare Funding Measure (Measure CC)

Measure CC is Double Crazy. FairPAC OPPOSES Measure CC. Vote no.

Official ballot question. “Shall the measure funding expanded and upgraded emergency room, intensive care, hospital, and other medical facilities to care for trauma, heart attack, stroke, and other patients and attract qualified doctors and nurses, with no funds for administrator salaries, by enacting a parcel tax of 14¢ per square foot of improved building area annually, generating approximately $12,400,000 annually for 30 years, subject to annual audits and citizens’ committee oversight, be adopted?”

Double Crazy — a second 30-year tax stacked on the 2013 hospital mortgage that is still largely unpaid.
Wants, not needs — “upgrade, expand, attract.” MarinHealth posted a ~$24M surplus in 2024. Taxpayers shouldn’t bankroll a wish list.
Dishonest signature gathering — gatherers told people the hospital would close; called “straight up dishonest” on the record.
Hard to unwind — may be bonded against; only another vote can repeal; no senior or low-income exemption.

14¢ per square foot per year. About $12.4 million a year for 30 years. About $280 more a year on a 2,000 square-foot home. FairPAC’s position → · Formal deep-dive at noceo.org →

Ordinance title (for the record only): An Ordinance of the People of the Marin Healthcare District, California, Enacting a Special Parcel Tax to Fund Local Hospital, Emergency Treatment, Mental Health, and Other Healthcare Facilities, Programs and Services. Yes committee: Friends of MarinHealth. See also Dr. Clay Hess’s Marin Voice submission (candidate site; a personal submission, not a FairPAC publication): yesclayhess.com/op-ed.

The Record

Past positions.

Once an election has passed, the position moves here and stays — including the ones that did not go our way. A record you can check is worth more than a record you can edit.

There are no past positions yet. FAIRPAC has not stood on a measure in a completed election. When that changes, the position and its reasoning will be archived here exactly as they were published.

Paid for by Faith and Reason Political Action Committee (FairPAC / Local Common Cents). Treasurer: Amy Young. Form 410 filed; FPPC committee ID pending. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate-controlled committee.