Wide Range of Initiatives Likely on November Ballot : Voting: Calls for congressional term limits, welfare cuts and a school voucher system are among the issues expected to qualify.

Noting that the timing could not be better, former Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, the prime mover behind state legislative term limits, Thursday threw his influence and money-raising ability behind a new initiative to extend term limits to California’s members of Congress.

Schabarum said that supporters, buoyed by the congressional check-writing scandal, have gathered two-thirds of the signatures needed to qualify the measure for the November ballot, which is likely to be laden with several major issues.

Among others expected to qualify are Gov. Pete Wilson’s measure to severely restrict welfare benefits and one that would revolutionize the way in which public funds for schools are allocated. Supporters of the so-called school voucher plan say they have three-fourths of the signatures they need.

Two others far enough along to be headed for likely qualification would expand California’s right-to-die law for terminally ill patients and repeal the state sales tax on snack foods.

Also aimed at the November ballot are initiatives to provide health care coverage for more than 5 million Californians who do not have it and to substantially increase taxes on businesses and high-income wage earners. Others would set up a no-fault automobile insurance program, restrict state park fees, protect state worker pension funds and allow casino-type gambling in Adelanto in San Bernardino County.

In all, proponents are pushing more than 30 initiatives for the fall ballot, a heavy dose of intended lawmaking by ballot box that continues a trend of recent years.

Schabarum said the congressional check-writing scandal is working to make life easier for signature gatherers for the term-limit initiative petition. “They (voters) are asking: ‘Where do I sign?’ ” he said. Further scandals surely lie ahead, he added, “all of which will validate in the minds of the public what a sorry group we have serving in the Congress.”

Schabarum was a main force behind Proposition 140, approved by voters in November, 1990, which imposed state legislative term limits. He said he will help push and finance a congressional term-limit proposal sponsored by Anita Anderson of San Francisco, who needs to collect 384,974 voter signatures by April 17 to qualify the initiative for the November ballot.

Her measure would prohibit California House members from seeking reelection after serving six or more of the previous 11 years. It would similarly restrict U.S. senators from California who have served for 12 or more of the previous 17 years. The limitation periods would start from 1993.

“Congress will try to do a similar job of trying to defeat this initiative as Willie Brown, et al, did in attempting to defeat Proposition 140,” Schabarum said, referring to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who led the fight against the state legislative term-limit measure.

Brown and state Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to have Proposition 140 found unconstitutional on grounds that it would deprive voters of the right to cast a ballot for the candidate of their choice. The high court dismissed their challenge last month but left unanswered whether federal elections fell into a different constitutional category from state races.

If history is a guide, about one-third of the 31 initiatives proposed will go before voters in November. The rest will fail to gather enough signatures.

Gov. Wilson is the primary sponsor of the welfare initiative, which would allow him to slash aid payments and grant him new state budgetary controls.

The governor’s forces must gather the valid signatures of 615,958 registered voters by April 17 to qualify the initiative constitutional amendment for the November ballot.

The measure would cut benefits to welfare families by 25% and discourage the growth of welfare cases with a variety of incentives and penalties.

At the same time, the welfare initiative would empower the governor to take over the budget process under certain “emergency” conditions and require legislators to produce a balanced budget by June 15, the date set by the state Constitution, or face a loss of salary and daily expense money.

Opponents charge that the governor is trying to work a “power grab” designed to strip the Legislature of its authority over state spending.

The parental choice school voucher initiative constitutional amendment would throw out the way in which the state apportions funds for kindergarten through 12th grade. Instead of paying for the upkeep of public schools, the state would provide every school-age child with a $2,500 “scholarship” to be used in the school of the parents’ choice--private, church-run or public.

Supporters say the initiative would provide students and parents with more choice and would breathe life into the public schools by providing excellence models. They need to collect 615,958 signatures to qualify the measure.

Opponents, including state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, argue that the measure would deprive public schools of revenue and would lead to “David Duke academies” and other undesirable kinds of schools.

On the health insurance issue, of three proposed initiatives, the one with the heaviest backing is sponsored by the powerful California Medical Assn., which has said it will spend “whatever it takes” to obtain the 384,974 voter signatures needed to qualify by the April 17 deadline. It is expected to qualify.

The plan would require all California employers to provide a bare-bones health insurance policy for all employees who work more than half time. Employers would pay at least 75% of the premiums and employees would pay the rest.

A number of insurance companies, small business groups, nurses and a coalition of labor, religious and consumer groups oppose the measure.

The other two would leave it up to the governor and Legislature to set up health care for all state residents by Jan. 1, 1997.