Prop 1D: Deceptive and Harmful

Authored by Sherry Novick, Executive Director, First 5 Association of California

The ballot language describing Proposition 1D is not only biased, but deceptive.  It was written by the Legislature and is clearly intended to obfuscate the fact that Prop 1D takes funds directly from local children’s programs to backfill holes in the state budget.

In 1998, Californians voted to dedicate tobacco taxes to local health and education programs for young children. Voters acted because Sacramento politicians were unwilling to fund these programs and unwilling to raise new revenues. In 2000, tobacco interests tried to take this funding away and were soundly defeated at the ballot box.  Now the Governor and Legislature want to take these funds, even though they did none of the work to raise them.

Prop 1D transfers 60 to 70 percent of First 5 revenues from local communities to the state budget for the next five years. By diverting First 5 funds to the State General Fund, Prop 1D threatens hundreds of successful efforts.  Prop 1D:

➢    Jeopardizes $163 million in preschool investments, threatening hundreds of programs throughout the state.
➢    Endangers access to health insurance for more than 75,000 children covered by the Healthy Kids program and undermines services for up to 65,000 children with special needs.
➢    Defunds preventive oral health services and dental treatment that last year served 105,300 children who would otherwise have had no care.
➢    Threatens a key source of child abuse prevention funding in every county.

Equally problematic, Prop 1D changes the way First 5 funds can be used, requiring them to fund “direct services.”  This has nothing to do with the state budget and undermines a multitude of current First 5 investments, such as developing preschool facilities in underserved communities, training child care providers, recruiting dentists and other pediatric specialists, and expanding access to fluoridation in California’s most populous counties.

First 5 Commissions are responsible stewards of their funds, investing for the long term.  They are accused of “sitting on billions,” when, in fact, they have entered into multi-year initiatives and are spending their dollars prudently to ensure they can fully fund their commitments.  Enactment of Prop 1D will punish children and communities for First 5’s conscientious management of public dollars.

Prop 1D will undermine one of the few efforts in California to fund prevention strategies that eliminate long-term and costly problems.  When times are tough, prevention funding is the first to go.  Prop 1D will only worsen future budget problems.

Sherry Novick is executive director of the First 5 Association of California, an organization of California’s 58 First 5 County Children and Families Commissions. She previously served as Chief Consultant to the California Assembly Human Services Committee.