Riverside County’s First 5 Seeks To Protest Funds Shift
On Wednesday, the First 5 Riverside County Children & Families Commission voted to recommend that Riverside County join a lawsuit challenging lawmakers' move to redirect $1 billion from the state's First 5 program's early childhood development services to health care programs. It remains unclear when the county's board of supervisors will act on the recommendation. So far, Fresno, Madera, Merced and Orange counties have taken legal action arguing that the funding shift violates the requirements of Proposition 10, which was approved in 1998 to use tobacco taxes to generate funding for early childhood education and health programs.
- "First 5 Wants County to Sue State Over Funding" (Hines, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 4/13).