Legislators are considering a combination of further spending cuts and a tax referendum that would go to the voters.
In 1991, they campaigned for a tax referendum to provide more revenue for the district's education fund.
California's initiative vote on $18.5 billion in highway and mass-transit propositions is viewed as a tax referendum with reverberating consequences.
In March, the same tax referendum for bus service was defeated by a 60-to-40 ratio.
A separate tax referendum to raise funds to finally build the rolling roof failed.
Voters rejected a tax referendum in May 2007.
Early in 1991, the tax referendum passed by a ratio of nearly 2 to 1.
Consider Alabama, which in September voted down a tax referendum championed by the state's Republican governor.
He criticized a tax referendum proposed by Voinovich in 1980, which voters eventually approved.
In 2009, they defeated a $75.2 million tax referendum.