(Bloomberg) -- Voters in California this November will get a chance to decide if the state should borrow another $20 billion from Wall Street.

Lawmakers this week approved placing two bond measures on the Nov. 5 ballot, one asking for $10 billion for school construction and another $10 billion to finance climate change infrastructure. They will join eight other ballot measures on topics such as same-sex marriage, rent control and crime.

The bond measures come as voters have expressed concern about adding to the amount of debt the state already owes and after the legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom had to slash spending, suspend some business tax breaks and withdraw cash from reserves to fill a nearly $50 billion deficit for the fiscal year that began on July 1.  

California, the most populous US state, already has about $98 billion of bond debt outstanding and more than $32 billion authorized but not yet issued, according to Moody’s Corp.

That “$20 billion is a big number,” said Matthew Butler, a vice president and senior credit officer at Moody’s. “It would be a material increase in debt. It would be a material increase in liabilities.”

Proposition 2 would provide $10 billion for modernization, repair and construction of school facilities in K-12 schools and community colleges. If voters approve the bond, $8.5 billion would go to public elementary and high schools and the remaining $1.5 billion would support the state’s community colleges. 

The $10 billion climate bond — Proposition 4 — would invest in safe drinking water and help communities avoid and recover from wildfires, floods, droughts and extreme heat. It would be the single largest public investment for climate resilience in California’s history.

Senator Ben Allen, a Democrat whose district includes the wealthy enclaves of Malibu and Beverly Hills, said that borrowing billions of dollars now for climate resiliency programs is crucial. “This moment calls for upfront investment,” he said. “It will save money and heartache in the future.”

The bond measures were signed into law late Wednesday by Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Democrat who is serving as acting governor while Newsom was in Washington to meet with President Joe Biden and other Democratic governors. Democrats control both chambers of the California legislature.

Both bond measures need a simple majority vote at the ballot box to pass. 

In May, a $6.4 billion bond for mental health facilities championed by Newsom barely passed. The second-term Democrat has since said the tight election “sobered” conversations about voter willingness to support borrowing. Voters in 2020 rejected a $15 billion education bond that lawmakers had placed on the ballot. 

Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat from Torrance who introduced the school bond bill, said he thinks the failure of the 2020 school bond was because of the pandemic and election uncertainty. Muratsuchi said he’s sure the $10 billion bond on this year’s ballot will pass given the need to fix aging facilities.

“I am confident that when California voters see the value being provided with this statewide school bond, providing matching dollars to local school facility plans to fix and repair their local schools with local taxpayer accountability provisions, that they will support this bond,” he said.

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