Green Foothills 2024 Voter Guide

There’s less than a week left to cast your vote! Here are the ballot initiatives that Green Foothills has endorsed for November 2024.

Yes on Proposition 4

Proposition 4 (also known as the “climate bond”) will create $10 billion in funding for climate resilience – including $25 million specifically for ecological restoration and protection of open space in Coyote Valley. This would be a historic investment in efforts to address the climate crisis. And it’s not a moment too soon. Experts agree that if we don’t act now, we will pay more in the long run to recover from climate disasters than it would cost to prevent them in the first place.

Examples of the types of projects that could be funded by Proposition 4:

Permanently protecting open space from development through land acquisition. Open space serves as a carbon sink, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Coastal and Bay wetland restoration and nature-based protection against sea level rise.
Planting more trees in urban areas to help cool our cities.
Safe drinking water for Indigenous communities, which is more important than ever in the face of climate-induced drought.
Protecting wildlife linkages and creating new wildlife crossings over dangerous highways. This will ensure that animals are able to migrate to find mates or move to new habitats as the climate changes.
Prevention and treatment of groundwater contamination.
Forest restoration and wildfire resilience, including tribal cultural burning.
Regenerative farming practices that restore soil fertility and sequester carbon, thus reducing greenhouse gases.
Protecting monarch butterflies and other native pollinators.
Protections and benefits for farmworkers, to help protect the workers and our local food supply.
Creating urban green space in parks-poor communities, which reduces neighborhood temperatures.
Restoring fish habitat and protecting rivers and streams.
Access to healthy food, urban farming, and farmers’ markets.
Restoration of marine ecosystems such as kelp forests.

Please vote yes on Proposition 4!

Yes on Measure A (San Benito County)

In San Benito County, voters have the chance to take charge of how land use decisions are made. Measure A, the “Empower the Voters to Make Land Use Decisions” initiative, would provide that rural, agricultural, or rangeland cannot be changed to industrial, commercial or residential uses without a vote of the people. Green Foothills has endorsed Measure A and urges San Benito voters to vote YES on this important ballot measure.

Measure A will protect the critical wildlife linkage between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Gabilan Range to the south. Currently, there are several truck stops and similar commercial development projects planned right in the middle of this wildlife linkage. Measure A would remove the commercial zoning from those development sites, making it safer for animals to navigate between habitat areas.

In recent years, San Benito County’s population has exploded – but the county lacks the necessary infrastructure to support this increase in population. As a result, commuters are sitting in hours of traffic every day, and water, sewer, and fire services are stretched to the breaking point. Measure A would allow voters to be the ones who decide how quickly the county should grow.