Bay Area Reporter - April 30, 2009
Seth Hemmelgarn, s.hemmelgarn@ebar.com

The proposed measures, which include a spending cap, lottery borrowing, and redirecting funds from the California Children and Families and mental health programs, are part of the budget compromise. While they have drawn criticism by Democrats and Republicans alike, they are seen by some as being necessary to fix the state's budget.

"The state will be in sorry shape if the measures don't pass," said state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco).

Leno said the first two measures - Prop 1A, which would limit state spending, and Prop 1B, which requires supplemental payments to local school districts and community colleges - are connected, and if they don't pass, billions of dollars will be lost. Prop B only goes into effect if Prop A passes.

He said if Prop 1C, which would allow for borrowing from future lottery profits, fails, "We will have an immediate $5 billion hole in the coming year's budget."

Not passing Prop 1D and 1E, which address funding for children and mental health, respectively, would result in missing another billion dollars, said Leno.

"Keep in mind, we'll have absolutely no option but to resolve the losses with more cuts, and that will mostly come from health and human services," he said. "There's no place else to cut."

Prop 1F would prevent legislators and other elected state officials from getting raises in years when the state is running a deficit. But the amount of money that will be realized in savings is only about $500,000, a drop in the bucket compared the billions the state needs.

All of the measures except 1F are trailing in public opinion polls. State Democrats, meeting at their convention in Sacramento last weekend, failed to garner enough support for the party to support Prop 1A, viewed as the cornerstone of the package.

State Republicans oppose the measures, despite the campaigning by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in support of them. State Senator Mark Leno supports the special election measures. Photo: Rick Gerharter

The progressive Courage Campaign has urged its members to reject all of the propositions.

Former Assemblyman John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) has been speaking to people around northern California about the propositions.

"The system is broken, and the volatility of the [state's] revenues is what really led to this meltdown. ... The problem is so large that there's no alternative but a mix of new taxes, substantial cuts, borrowing, and federal stimulus," said Laird, who chaired the Assembly Budget Committee for four years.

He said "revenues have tanked" by another $8 billion since legislators put the budget together in February, and if the proposed measures don't pass, Laird said that will mean an additional drop of $6 billion.

One idea for reform is to lower the threshold for passing a budget.

Currently, two-thirds in the state Senate and in the Assembly must vote in favor of budget bills.

Leno supports reform but said, "We've got a huge deficit to deal with today, and we can't get a measure to the ballot to reform the system until next year, so one doesn't replace the other, one follows the other."

Money from tobacco

One of the measures that troubles some voters is Prop 1D, which would redirect millions of dollars from the state's tobacco tax to the state's general fund. According to the state voter guide, the money would be used to protect health and human services for children.

In 1998, the state's voters passed Prop 10, adding a 50-cent tax to each pack of cigarettes sold to create First 5 California, also known as the California Children and Families Commission. The commission was created to promote, support, and improve the early development of children from the prenatal stage to the age of 5.

According to Derik Aoki, senior program officer for First 5 San Francisco, his agency gets about $7 million a year through the program.

If Prop 1D passes, he said, "We would have to look at all our programs and make a determination which ones we would continue, and at what level, moving forward."

"Everything would be on the table," said Aoki. Our Family Coalition Executive Director Judy Appel; the agency receives funding through First Five California.

Our Family Coalition, which promotes the civil rights and well-being of LGBTQ families with children and prospective parents in the Bay Area through education, advocacy, social networking, and grassroots community organizing, is one of the groups supported by First 5 San Francisco.

Judy Appel, the agency's executive director, said it receives a $100,000 grant each year from First 5 San Francisco. The coalition has a total budget of about $860,000.

The money Our Family Coalition gets from First 5 San Francisco is used to help prepare kids for entering schools and other mainstream institutions "where they're going to be up against the same kind of heterosexism" that was evident during the campaign for Prop 8, the measure that voters passed to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry, said Appel.

"In many ways, public support of LGBTQ families is, in our opinion, critical in sending a community message that bias against our families isn't okay," she said.

AIDS funding

It isn't clear what impact the measures could have on funding for people with HIV/AIDS.

Jeff Hall is legislative affairs director for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which, among other things, does advocacy work at the federal, state, and local levels.

Hall said the foundation isn't going to be taking positions on the ballot initiatives.

"If the initiatives fail, the Legislature will have to rework the state budget, and we don't know whether that will be to our advantage or disadvantage. It's impossible to predict, really," he said.

"We do know that the current state budget was constructed assuming that these measures would go forward, and in the current state budget, our number one priority is full funding for ADAP, and that is the case in the current state budget, so whether ADAP would be fully funded if these ballot measures fail, we simply don't know," said Hall, referring to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

Gay clubs' votes mixed

San Francisco's two LGBT Democratic clubs came to different endorsement decisions on the propositions.

The Alice B. Toklas club recommended voting yes on all the ballot measures.

"These measures are not sufficient to fix the fundamental problems that exist in California's budgeting process. However, we did feel that action on these measures now is necessary," said club Co-Chair Susan B. Christian.

Christian said the club had a "very intense discussion" about the propositions, but "the position of the club is it would be more costly not to enact these measures than it will be to go forward with them."

The Harvey Milk club has come out against all the measures, except for Prop 1F, where its position is "no endorsement."

Rafael Mandelman, the club's president, said he couldn't speak for club members' individual reasoning, but he surmises that opposition from labor organizations like the California Nurses Association led to the "No" votes.

"We look to those unions to protect the interests of the people they're taking care of," such as the sick and the elderly, said Mandelman.

On the other hand, the California Teachers Association, another powerful union, is providing major funding to the Yes on 1A and 1B campaign.

Early voting for the special election began April 20, and absentee ballots have been mailed out. San Francisco's Department of Elections will be open until midnight on Monday, May 4 to accept voter registration forms for the special election from those who need to re-register. May 4 is the deadline statewide for new registration, which is only needed if someone has moved since the last election or has not voted before. For voter information, visit http://www.sos.ca.gov.

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