Voter-Sponsored Ballot Measures, Including Five Health-Related Initiatives, Unlikely To Affect Voter Attitudes Toward Process, Opinion Piece States

The "wacky" Nov. 2 statewide ballot -- which features 16 measures, including five health-related initiatives -- likely will not "shake the voters' faith in direct democracy," columnist Daniel Weintraub writes in the Sacramento Bee (Weintraub, Sacramento Bee, 10/10). The five health-related initiatives on the ballot are:

• Proposition 61, a $750 million measure that would pay for construction, expansion and equipment for children's hospitals. Including interest, the program would cost about $1.5 billion over 30 years;
  
  
• Proposition 63, a measure that would increase by 1% the state personal income tax on individuals whose annual incomes exceed $1 million to finance an expansion of mental health services. The measure would raise an estimated $700 million annually to care for people with severe mental illnesses;
  
  
• Proposition 67, an initiative that would add a 3% surcharge to residential telephone bills to fund hospital emergency services and training. The initiative, which would not include cellular or business lines, would generate an estimated $550 million annually to fund emergency department services;
  
  
• Proposition 71, an initiative that would raise an average of $295 million annually for a decade to promote stem cell research through the issue of state bonds. The measure would provide funds for a new stem cell research center at a University of California campus, as well as grants and loans for laboratory projects at other colleges. State analysts say the measure would cost a total of $6 billion, including interest; and
  
  
• Proposition 72, an initiative that allows state residents to vote "yes" to uphold or "no" to repeal SB 2, a state law scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2006, that will require some employers to provide health insurance to workers or pay into a state fund to provide such coverage (California Healthline, 9/27).