Voter Initiative Funding Oakland Zoo Survives Legal Challenge

A measure that Oakland, Calif., voters approved to fund the municipal zoo through a flat tax on property will stand with modifications after a California appeals court rejected a taxpayer group’s attempt to invalidate it.

The initiative’s language assigning duties to the Conservation Society of California Inc.—a private corporation that manages the zoo—violates a state constitutional provision that bars conferring special privileges on specific organizations, the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District ruled Monday. But any mention of the society can be severed from the measure without invalidating the remainder, Justice Jon B. Streeter wrote for the court.

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