A Dozen Initiatives Qualify for Ballot : Election: Measures making deadline call for taxing the rich, mandatory health insurance and Gov. Wilson’s welfare reform. Legislature may add more.

California voters on Nov. 3 will consider at least a dozen ballot propositions covering several major issues--among them taxing the rich and reducing the sales tax, setting up mandatory health insurance for workers and imposing congressional term limits.

Also qualifying before this week’s deadline, set by the secretary of state, was a right-to-die initiative to permit terminally ill patients to authorize physicians to end their lives in a “painless, humane and dignified manner.” Doctors and hospitals would be freed of criminal or civil liability in such cases.

Voters also will decide the fate of Gov. Pete Wilson’s much-debated measure to make deep cuts in welfare and simultaneously hand him new powers over the state’s budget-making process.

In addition to the 12 measures with confirmed places on the ballot, Secretary of State March Fong Eu said, the Legislature may add more.

Supporters of a proposed school voucher plan that failed to qualify for the ballot went to court in Sacramento. They hoped to persuade a judge that they “substantially complied” with state election law and deserve a spot on the November ballot.

Of the measures that have qualified, the so-called “tax the rich” initiative would cut the state sales tax by a quarter of a cent and replace the lost revenue by increasing the income taxes of single people who earn more than $250,000 and couples who make more than $500,000 a year.

The same measure would also add to the taxes paid by businesses in a variety of ways, including closing loopholes that benefit banks, oil companies, insurance companies and multinational corporations.

The sponsoring California Tax Reform Assn. described the ballot proposition as an attempt to provide tax relief for “ordinary Californians who have been bearing an unfair tax burden for too long.”

But business representatives argued that it should be called a “job terminator” plan because it would make more firms leave California, taking jobs with them, in the midst of the continuing recession.

“With unemployment running high,” said Kirk West, president of the state Chamber of Commerce, “we should be doing everything we can to encourage employers to stay here and expand. We must not give them more reasons to cut jobs or to leave the state.”

The powerful California Medical Assn. is pushing for the mandatory health care initiative, which would provide coverage for millions of California workers who do not have it now.

Among other things, the CMA initiative would require employers to pay at least 75% of the cost of health insurance for employees who work more than 17.5 hours per week and their dependents.

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

The CMA’s president-elect, David Holley, said the sponsors are prepared to drop the ballot proposal if the Legislature and the governor enact a health care plan before the Nov. 3 general election, which appears doubtful.

An initiative backed by former Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum that would impose term limits on California members of Congress will also appear on the fall ballot.

Schabarum provided the main force behind Proposition 140, which imposed term limits on state officeholders and was approved by the voters in November, 1990.

His new initiative would prohibit the reelection of members of Congress from California who have served for six or more of the previous 11 years.

Also banned from the ballot would be U.S. senators who have represented California for 12 or more of the previous 17 years.

Schabarum said he expects heavy opposition from members of Congress but said he was counting on the recent House bank check-writing scandal to give impetus to his initiative.

Gov. Wilson is the primary sponsor of the welfare initiative.

It would cut benefits to welfare recipients by as much as 25%, temporarily limit benefits for newcomers to California to amounts they received in their former states and discourage the growth of welfare families with a series of incentives and penalties.

At the same time, the governor would obtain new powers to reduce state spending during fiscal emergencies--when the governor and Legislature are deadlocked on a new budget or when spending under an approved budget is 3% out of balance.

Another November ballot measure would repeal the controversial state sales tax on snack foods.

In addition, there is a $1-billion public rail transit bond issue, a plan to protect public employment retirement system pension funds from appropriation for other purposes, and twin proposals to continue the existence of the legislative analyst’s and auditor general’s offices but exclude their expenditures from reductions required by Proposition 140.

Measures Qualified for Ballot

Following is a brief description of some of the propositions that have qualified to appear on California’s Nov. 3 general election ballot. As yet, they have not been assigned numbers.

Terminally ill: Allow a terminally ill patient to direct a doctor to terminate the patient’s life in a painless, humane and dignified manner.

Pension funds: Increase the protection of public employment retirement system pension funds against raids by the governor or the Legislature.

Snack foods: Repeal the state sales tax on snack foods.

Term limits: Impose term limits on California members of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Welfare benefits: Reduce welfare benefits and give the governor power over the state’s budget-making process.

Health care: Require employers to pay the majority of the cost of providing health care insurance for full-time employees and their dependents.

Sales tax: Reduce the state sales tax and increase the state income tax paid by high wage earners and taxes paid by businesses.

Bond issue: Authorize the issuance of $1 billion in general obligation bonds to acquire right of way, construct and obtain rolling stock for rail transit systems.

Toll roads: Provide that any state-owned toll road or highway leased to a private entity shall be permanently toll-free upon lease expiration or after tolls have been collected for 35 years.

Tax exemption: Extend a property tax exemption to the surviving spouse of a person who dies on active duty while in military service.