Economy Slows Ballot Measures by Voters to Crawl : Politics: In contrast to years when 18 initiatives vied for attention, only one has qualified for June election.

With initiative donors strapped for cash, officials and consultants say California voters this year could face the fewest citizen-generated measures in more than a decade.

One initiative on the June statewide ballot would provide $1.9 billion for parkland, including a portion of Laguna Canyon and other wildlife resources throughout the state. About 45,000 of the 725,000 signatures that were gathered statewide originated in Orange County, supporters said.

But Tuesday, supporters of a pay-at-the-pump auto insurance proposal said they have scrapped a statewide ballot initiative headed for the November ballot. And former Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum said he has received only tepid support for a proposed initiative aimed at illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, plans for another school voucher measure, similar to one defeated in November, have been put on hold.

“It’s a bleak year,” said Mike Arno of American Petition Consultants, which specializes in paid signature-gathering efforts to qualify initiatives for the ballot.

Arno and others who have made big money in the past blame the troubled economy for persuading many potential donors to avoid initiative fights.

“Offhand, I’d say it’s the recession,” said Jack McDowell, one of the most successful initiative consultants, explaining the lack of initiative business in California.

Although proponents of direct democracy are still gathering signatures for 20 potential initiatives, virtually all of them appear to lack significant political and financial support. Unless an initiative has extraordinary volunteer support, it typically costs $500,000 to $1 million to collect enough signatures.

Only one citizen-generated measure, dealing with buying parkland, has already qualified for the June ballot, and there may be only one initiative in the November general election--the proposal to sentence criminals to life terms for the third offense.

If that turns out to be true, Californians would face the fewest citizen-sponsored initiatives in a general election since 1974, when there was one each on the June and November ballots.

Arno is working to qualify a single measure for the November ballot--one to imprison for life criminals convicted of a third felony and significantly increase sentences of people convicted of a second serious felony.

The measure, called “three strikes and you’re out,” gained momentum in the wake of the abduction and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma. However, proponents ran short of cash last month and were forced to temporarily halt the paid signature-gathering campaign.

At the same time, legislators are rushing to introduce bills mimicking some aspects of the “three strikes” proposition, raising questions about the need for such an initiative.

Kelly Kimball, of Kimball & Associates, the other major firm engaged in paid signature gathering, said he expects to have no contracts in California in 1994, and has sent many of his employees to other states where the initiative and referendum business is expanding.

The deadline has passed for qualifying initiatives for the June ballot, but some measures still could qualify for November. The signatures--385,000 to change a law or 615,000 to change the state Constitution--must be submitted to the secretary of state by April to be verified by a June deadline for the November ballot.

“There certainly are a lot (of proposed initiatives) in circulation, but most are not ones that have much substance,” said Tony Miller, chief deputy secretary of state. “It does seem a light year in terms of substantive and weighty measures.”

Miller said he believes potential initiative backers are hoping the Legislature does its job by responding to various problems in the state. Additionally, he said, donors have seen several heavily funded initiatives go down to defeat in in recent years.

“Voters are much more skeptical,” Miller said.

The one citizen-generated initiative certain to be on the June ballot is sponsored by the Planning and Conservation League. The proposition calls on voters to approve nearly $2 billion in bonds to buy parkland, including a portion of Laguna Canyon, and renovate and buy urban recreational facilities.

If passed, the measure will provide $25 million to help complete the purchase from the Irvine Co. of Laguna Laurel, a site within Laguna Canyon once approved for construction of 1,500 housing units. Laguna Beach and the county are paying for most of the site. The remaining parcel of 189 acres is located near the Laguna Beach-Irvine border.

The Planning and Conservation League, which has promoted several successful initiatives focusing on the environment, is also attempting to obtain 385,000 signatures of registered voters to qualify a measure for the November ballot. The second measure seeks to add a 4-cent tax on gasoline to pay for rail and other transportation projects.

The downturn in the initiative business follows several years in which the industry boomed. In 1988, for example, 18 measures made it onto the ballot. In 1992, there were none on the June ballot, but seven on the general election ballot.

Initiatives were so numerous that several legislators, academics and others clamored for reforms making it more difficult to place them on the ballot. A commission’s report on the issue, which took two years to prepare, is scheduled to be released today.

Among the measures still seeking support for the November ballot are proposals to eliminate affirmative action in hiring for state jobs, authorize gambling on an experimental basis in the city of Adelanto and remove the authority of local governments to regulate mobile-home parks.

Former Immigration and Naturalization Service officials Harold Ezell and Alan Nelson continue to push a measure seeking to expel illegal immigrants from public schools.

Ezell said he has not sought or received large donations, but added that he believes his measure will make it onto the ballot with a strictly volunteer signature-gathering effort.

Rarely have volunteers been able to gather the huge number of signatures needed to qualify measures.

Schabarum is sponsoring a more limited measure aimed at illegal immigrants, but said he has encountered questionable enthusiasm for it.

In an interview last week, he said the chance of it making it onto the November ballot was 50-50. Schabarum said he had raised less than $70,000 of the $500,000 he needs.

Several consultants were in line to make large sums from the political war that would have erupted if the pay-at-the-pump initiative had made it onto the ballot.

Time magazine columnist Andrew Tobias, the chief backer, had said late in December that he was prepared to personally foot the estimated $700,000 it would have cost to get the measure on the ballot.

But after making a final round of telephone calls to potential supporters, he said he was persuaded that he should postpone the effort until the 1996 election while building a broader base of support.

Opponents had organized a powerful coalition under the name Californians to Save Our Economy, and hired one of the most successful initiative consultants, the Burlingame firm of Woodward & McDowell.

“It was the coalition we put together,” McDowell said, explaining the reason Tobias withdrew it. “They never expected that kind of opposition.”

Times staff writer Jeffrey A. Perlman contributed to this report.