Voter Initiatives Taking Shape for ’06 State Ballot

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may have forsaken ballot initiatives for the near future, but lawmakers and advocacy groups are moving forward with new proposals to raise taxes on cigarettes and the wealthy, keep sex offenders off the streets, increase spending on preschools and healthcare and forever ban same-sex marriage.

Schwarzenegger interpreted the rejection of all eight measures in this month’s special election as a sign that California voters want lawmakers to solve the state’s problems by themselves. But advocates from across the political spectrum -- including several Republican state legislators -- say they are preparing initiatives for next year either to override the Democratic-led Legislature or break through the Capitol’s partisan paralysis.

Actor and director Rob Reiner has collected more than 1 million signatures for a proposition that would increase taxes on the wealthy to pay for universal preschool. If validated by elections officials, the names would be more than enough to place the measure on the June primary ballot.

“We’re building a very broad coalition and we’re going about this in a very responsible way and we’re not trying to shove something down people’s throats by fiat,” Reiner said, contrasting his proposal with the ones Schwarzenegger and his allies devised this year.

Meanwhile, two groups are gathering signatures for competing initiatives that would raise the state’s cigarette tax by $1.50 a pack, to $2.37. That would be higher than in any other state except Rhode Island ($2.46) and New Jersey ($2.40), according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C. A spokesman for Philip Morris USA said such an increase in California would be excessive.

But the potential revenue from such a tax -- about $1.5 billion a year -- is being eyed.

One group, led by California’s hospital association, wants to give the money to emergency rooms, many of which are having financial difficulties because they treat so many uninsured patients. This would be the second time hospitals have asked voters to raise money for emergency rooms: A failed 2004 initiative would have increased fees on cellphones.

In response, a coalition of health advocates, including the American Cancer Society, American Heart Assn. and American Lung Assn. of California, announced an initiative to raise the cigarette tax to pay for cancer research and provide healthcare to all children in California who don’t have insurance.

Paul Knepprath, a vice president at the lung association, said his coalition tried to negotiate a joint initiative with the hospitals, one “that could balance the needs of the kinds of programs that they care about.”

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get to an agreement,” Knepprath said. “They felt the need to do their own measure.”

Dr. Jack Lewin, chief executive of the California Medical Assn., decried the dueling initiatives, which he said would make it easier for opponents, including the tobacco industry, to fight both.

“This is really a debacle of lack of cooperation and coordination,” Lewin said. “This should be doctors and hospitals and patients and emergency personnel all together on something. Instead, it’s going to be a big battle.”

Kristine Deutschman, spokeswoman for the emergency room measure, said: “We really don’t see it as competing measures. We see it as differences in priorities.”

Public safety is another popular subject for potential initiatives in 2006. Republican legislators are pushing three tough-on-crime measures that Democratic lawmakers have nixed.

The only elected husband-wife couple in the Capitol, Lancaster Republican Assemblywoman Sharon Runner and her husband, George, a state senator, are backing an initiative that would allow convicted sex offenders to be confined indefinitely, even after they completed their sentences.

The proposal failed as legislation this year, and Schwarzenegger has said he would support the initiative if lawmakers do not adopt it themselves. Dave Gilliard, a Sacramento consultant running the campaign, said they have raised more than $1 million, including donations of at least $125,000 from each of the Runners.

Financing for two other lawmaker-sponsored initiatives is not as clear.

Assemblyman Ray Haynes (R-Murrieta) wants to create a state border patrol to combat illegal immigration. Sen. Chuck Poochigian (R-Fresno) is pressing an initiative that would expand the types of activities that qualify as identity theft, bolster investigations and increase punishments.

If Poochigian’s measure qualifies, it would be on the ballot at the time he would be campaigning for the office of attorney general, potentially giving him a natural platform. Candidates in the past, including Jerry Brown in his 1974 run for governor and John Van de Kamp in his failed 1990 bid for governor, employed that tactic.

Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders also hope to place on the ballot a gigantic public works project bond to repair the state’s sagging infrastructure. The measure would probably be the largest in California history -- totaling in the tens of billions of dollars -- and could lead lawmakers to put off for the second time a $10-billion bond for a high-speed rail line that is slated for the November general election. A $600-million library improvement bond initiative scheduled for the June primary is less likely to be affected.

Some of this year’s bitter conflicts in Sacramento are likely to spill over onto next year’s ballot. Gay rights opponents are preparing measures that would outlaw same-sex nuptials through California’s Constitution. (They have drafted 10 versions so far.) The groups are still furious that the Legislature approved a same-sex marriage bill in August, only to see it vetoed by Schwarzenegger; their measure, if approved, would prevent subsequent legislators from changing the law.

Empowered by victories in the special election fight, labor unions are also contemplating two measures inspired by events this year. One would raise California’s $6.75-an-hour minimum wage, a change Schwarzenegger has twice vetoed.

The second initiative would be payback to the business community and the Republican Party, which supported this year’s failed Proposition 75 to restrict public employee unions’ political might. The new proposition that labor has threatened returns the favor: It would require corporations to get the approval of shareholders each year before spending company money on California political campaigns. Labor has yet to submit a draft to state officials, which is required before backers can begin collecting signatures.

Just as it is unclear how many of these proposals will actually make the ballot, it is also murky what kind of reception the electorate will give them.

Supporters, as well as some independent analysts, do not believe that the electorate is tired of voting on propositions, even though every one on the Nov. 8 ballot was rejected.

“The voters viewed the special election as the governor sending them unfinished business,” said Mark Baldassare, research director at the Public Policy Institute of California, a San Francisco nonpartisan group. “They still want to look and listen to ideas that come from independent sources.”

David Townsend, a Democratic consultant working on the children’s health insurance tobacco tax measure, said voters turned out in the special election in relatively high numbers, given that there were no candidates on ballots in most of the state.

“The fundamental problem with the Schwarzenegger package was it was not relevant to voters,” he said. “The voters definitely want to vote on major issues, but they don’t want to be bothered with minor stuff that ought to be solved in the Legislature. They weren’t fatigued; they were angry.”