If I understand the situation correctly, the law effectively just imposed a meaningless formality because all it took was a local ballot measure to override it,

If I understand the situation correctly, the law effectively just imposed a meaningless formality because all it took was a local ballot measure to override it, and as a practical matter it would also take at least one ballot measure to authorize the bonds/taxes to fund a network, so it just meant that voters needed to approve two ballot measures instead of one.