State Allocates $4 Million for a Heartfelt Special Interest

Line item 6440-122 of California’s new budget scarcely attracts notice.

It is, after all, a mere $4 million in an $82-billion spending plan. But it has significance for Rick Rollens and his wife Janna.

It’s Rollens’ handiwork, and that of a few other parents who share the same special interest--finding the causes of and cure for autism, which afflicts their children.

Rollens spent 23 years as a legislative staffer, rose to become secretary of the Senate and now works for Kahl/Pownell Advocates, among the richest lobbying firms in town. It represents blue-chip clients including big oil, timber companies, HMOs and the like.

With that background, Rollens was able to make his pitch to the most powerful lawmaker in town, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton. There already was $2 million in the budget for Line Item 6440-122; the San Francisco Democrat added $2 million more.

Burton and Sen. Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata) pushed for, and won, an additional line item of $1 million, for study of the causes of autism, which is on the rise.

California’s budget pays for big things like prisons, public schools and health care. But it also pays for small things, and much of what gets funded happens because lobbyists push for it. Most of the time, their clients have a financial stake in the outcome.

Line item 6440-122 has nothing to do with the moneyed interests Kahl/Pownell represents. For Burton and other lawmakers who support the funding, there are no campaign donations at stake.

The goal is far loftier: to discover the causes of developmental disabilities, including autism, and develop effective treatments.

“If we find there is an environmental cause, we can put an end to the misery,” Rollens said.

If Gov. Gray Davis leaves the money in place--which appears likely--the dollars would go to a new center at UC Davis called the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (M.I.N.D. Institute, for short).

The fledgling institute would use the new money to research the causes of autism, a nerve development disorder that leaves children isolated from the world around them. The center studies other disorders as well, among them Tourette’s syndrome, cerebral palsy and learning disabilities such as attention deficit disorder.

The idea for such an institute was born two years ago, when two other fathers, both with autistic children and both friends of the Rollens’, decided to approach UC Davis about it.

“They kept telling us we couldn’t do it,” said Chuck Gardner, whose son, Chas, 7, is autistic. Gardner’s response: “Sounds to me that the problem is money. What’s the figure?”

The academics said $5 million.

“If you’ve got a child with autism, that’s not much money,” Gardner said.

Another father of an autistic child, Dr. Louis Vismara, knew Angelo Tsakopoulos, a Sacramento developer and a large donor to Democrats, and called him. Tsakopoulos gave $500,000 and called Steve Beneto, a trucking company owner. Beneto, a large donor to Republicans, gave $500,000. Beneto has a 40-year-old son who is autistic.

“It’s not going to benefit him,” Beneto said. “I’m doing it for the future.”

Within six months, the parents had raised $1.5 million, which the university matched. Then Rollens turned to the Legislature.

Diane Watson, then a Democratic state senator from Los Angeles, introduced a bill last year that created the M.I.N.D. Institute and provided the first state money, $2 million. Former Gov. Pete Wilson supported it.

“It’s the parents who are forcing scientists to look at new approaches,” said Dr. Thomas Anders, acting director of the M.I.N.D. Institute.

Some parents believe that there is a correlation among immunizations and various childhood diseases and autism. Anders wants to fund research into the question.

He also wants to expand research into autism beyond the brain, and look into reasons why many autistic children suffer gastrointestinal problems and sleep disorders.

Rollens figures that he will come back next year for more money. His reasoning is the sort that sways legislators. The state cost of caring for a severely disabled person is about $2 million over the individual’s lifetime. If a cure can be found or such disabilities can be prevented, “the investment of a few million dollars is well spent.”

California has spent modest sums for similar causes in the past. In 1988, the infant son of a legislative aide, Barry Brokaw, died of sudden infant death syndrome. Then-Sen. Dan Boatwright responded by carrying legislation to fund more SIDS research and awareness of it.

The legacy of Brokaw’s baby, Kevin, continues. The state will spend $668,000 next year on SIDS awareness and training for police and others who deal with parents of children who die of SIDS.

Such efforts draw “something positive from a tragedy, so others won’t have to go through it,” said Brokaw, now a lobbyist.