Prohibition On Public Agency Discrimination Or Preferential Treatment.

PROHIBITION ON PUBLIC AGENCY DISCRIMINATION OR PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Prohibits the state, counties, cities, political subdivisions, and agents from using race, color, age, religion, gender, ethnicity, and national origin as a criterion for discriminating against or giving preferential treatment to any individual or group in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting. Does not invalidate current court orders or consent decrees. Exempts actions necessary for receipt of substantial federal funds. Exempts reasonably necessary sex-based classifications in public employment and public education. Provides for severability of provisions if invalid. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: The measure would result in annual savings of (1) potentially tens of millions of dollars in public employment and contracting costs and (2) potentially in excess of $100 million education programs, with up to two-thirds of the education savings reallocated to other education programs. If the measure is interpreted to bar age classifications for public retirement purposes, there could result additional costs of unknown magnitude. If the measure is interpreted to eliminate minimum and/or maximum age limits for public school education, there is a potential increase in annual costs of hundreds of millions of dollars for additional K-12 enrollments. Insubstantial amounts of federal funding could be lost for a number of programs. The aggregate amount of such losses cannot be estimated