A Riverside whistleblower has filed a lawsuit against the city alleging that the ballot language for the June 2 Measure Z election is biased and violates election code.
“I’d like to get an actual fair and impartial ballot title and ballot summary,” Jason Hunter, who filed the lawsuit March 13, told The Riverside Record. “Our government has a really hard time — and the city of Riverside in particular — telling people the truth, because they’re afraid that if you actually told them the truth, people would say no.”
The Riverside City Council voted unanimously March 3 to add a ballot measure to the primary election that, if passed, would both extend the city’s 1% Measure Z sales tax past its current 2036 expiration and increase it to 1.25%.
City officials said the additional revenue would mostly be used to pay for an overhaul of the Riverside Fire Department over the next 15 years.
As part of the approval, the council finalized the language for the ballot measure’s title and question, which outlined the tax increase, the estimated annual revenue it would generate and the services it would fund.
Hunter alleged in his lawsuit that the title, “City of Riverside Services Renewal Measure,” does not effectively disclose to voters that the sales tax would also be increased, calling it a misrepresentation of the facts. He also alleged that the title was misleading voters to believe the revenue generated from the tax would go to fund services when there was no guarantee the city would...
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