Opponents of a public subsidy for a new downtown sports arena are seeking to put the issue before voters in a special election.
The campaign behind the initiative – called Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork – notified the city clerk’s office on Wednesday that it intends to gather signatures for the Voter Approval for Public Funding of Professional Sports Arena Act. The city attorney’s office now has two weeks to write a ballot summary before the campaign can begin collecting signatures.
City Clerk Shirley Concolino said the group will need valid signatures from 15 percent of registered voters in the city – about 33,000. The campaign will also need to collect a buffer of several thousand more to account for invalid signatures and duplicates.
Those signatures would need to be filed with county elections officials by mid-July, giving the campaign just a few weeks.
Reported by Ryan Lillis and Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee
