Backers Fear Tax Funds Will Go Up in Smoke

Worried that a March ballot initiative could repeal Proposition 10’s cigarette tax for child development programs, county backers of the tax will begin a series of public forums tonight to raise awareness of how the money will be used locally.

Ventura County’s Children and Families Commission receives $11 million annually to spend on programs that benefit young children, money generated by 1998’s voter-approved Proposition 10. But critics say a state panel and 58 county commissions created by Proposition 10, including Ventura’s, are virtually invisible and have been too slow at spending the money.

Proposition 28 on the March 7 ballot seeks to repeal the 50-cent-a-pack tax, and, if passed, would effectively disband the county commission. That gives new urgency to the local commission’s goal to raise its visibility with the public, commission members said.

Members of the commission acknowledged that they want to raise their profile before the vote.

A series of forums this week will also provide valuable insight into how the public wants the dollars spent, said Supervisor Kathy Long, chairwoman of the local group.

“We have not been sitting here twiddling our thumbs,” Long said. “We want to get out to the streets and not just rely on the professionals to help us determine what the needs are.”

Two-hour sessions, beginning at 6 p.m., will be held at the Centerpoint Mall in Oxnard tonight, the Pacific View Mall in Ventura on Wednesday, and Horizon Hills School in Thousand Oaks on Thursday.

Commission members chose shopping malls and a school to increase the likelihood that parents would participate, Long said. More than a dozen meetings with child-care professionals, educators and experts in early childhood development have also been held as the commission gathers information for a spending plan, the Camarillo supervisor said.

The commission hopes to begin distributing dollars by July, after it has submitted a spending plan to a state panel for approval, she said. Long acknowledged that the process of identifying worthy projects has been longer than expected.

“We keep pushing, but you are looking at a nine-member commission that is made up of volunteers,” she said. “Getting the processing of all this done is taking longer than any of us would like.”

Charles Janigian, president of California Assn. of Retail Tobacconists, said only one county commission--Alameda in Northern California--has submitted a spending plan 14 months after Proposition 10 was approved by a narrow majority of California voters.

Local commissions, which operate independent of county government, are in “disarray,” Janigian said, because they duplicate existing public and private efforts to assist needy children. His group also opposes the tax on the grounds that it is discriminatory to smokers.

“If these are such worthy causes, then all taxpayers should assist in paying for them,” Janigian said. “To restrict it to smokers is really quite incredible and should not be allowed.”

In addition to the forums, Ventura County’s commission will hold at least two public hearings and possibly add other marketing tools as it seeks to get the word out, said Stephen Kaplan, a consultant working with the local commission.

“What we don’t want to do is rush ourselves and make poor decisions,” Kaplan said. “We have been working hard to make sure the decisions we make are what the community needs and is interested in.”

The state’s Children and Families Commission last week approved a $14-million statewide advertising blitz warning of smoking’s dangers and extolling new programs to aid young children. Advertising on television, radio and billboards and in print media in English and Spanish will run through May 15.

Ventura County Supervisor Susan Lacey, who is chairwoman of the state Children and Families panel, said the ad campaign has been planned for months and is not directed at fending off the March repeal initiative.

“We are going about the business that the people of California have asked us to do,” Lacey said. “We are focused on that, not ballot initiatives by those who oppose us.”

FYI

* Ventura County Children and Families Commission invites the public to comment on how $11 million generated annually by Proposition 10 tobacco taxes should be spent. Suggestions must be limited to programs that benefit children under age 6. The two-hour forums begin at 6 p.m. and will be held at the following locations:

Tonight

Centerpoint Mall, Oxnard

Wednesday

Pacific View Mall, Ventura

Thursday

Horizon Hills School

33 Greta Ave.

Thousand Oaks

For more information, call 648-5900, Ext. 221.