At its April 29 meeting, the commission took the position against Proposition 1D after reviewing its impact on local children's services should the ballot measure pass later this month.
Proposition 1D would shift revenues that come from the California Children and Families Action, 1998's Proposition 10, which created the California Children and Families Program or First 5 Commission.
The program uses money generated by a state excise tax of 50 cents on every pack of cigarettes plus other tobacco products to support early child development programs from ages 0 to 5. First 5 reported that research has demonstrated that 80 percent of the brain is developed in the first four years of life.
The Legislative Analyst's Office estimates the 2009-10 revenues from Proposition 10 to be about $500 million, which are estimated to drop 3 percent annually in the future. Twenty percent of the annual proceeds go to the state First 5 Commission, with the remaining 80 percent going to commissions in the 58 counties.
Proposition 1D, the California Children and Families Act, would reduce state First 5 Commission funding by $340 million in 2009-10 and reduce state and local commission funding by $268 million each year beginning in 2009-10 and lasting through 2013-14, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office.
The proposition's proponents say it will help solve California's budget crisis, and that to protect child welfare and foster care programs all of the state's available resources need to be used.
The California Budget Project estimated that Proposition 1D would take more than $1.6 billion from Proposition 10 funds and use them to replace general fund dollars used currently for state health and human services.
It also would limit the use of First 5 funds for providing direct health care and education services such as child care and preschool, and would limit services for families that aren't in the child welfare system.
The proposition would require county commissions to submit audit reports to the Board of Supervisors and the county auditor, with the latter being established as an ex-officio member of the local commission.
In its formal statement against Proposition 1D, the Lake County First 5 Commission said voters are essentially being asked to change their vote and give the funds to legislators.
Lake County Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck, who sits on the local First 5 Commission, also has come out with a formal statement against Proposition 1D.
Lake County First 5 Commission Executive Director Tom Jordan said the commission would lose between $200,000 and $250,000 a year of the $625,000 that forms its base allocation – or about 36 percent of the group's base operating revenue – if Proposition 1D passes.
The commission would lose another $125,000 in the first year after passage. Jordan said that money is currently part of the state reserve fund.
“We’re not hurt as much as counties that have larger populations,” said Jordan, noting that the original negotiations about the proposition could have resulted in a 50-percent cut to local programs.
Jordan said the Proposition 10 funds are declining. One recent impact was in the reauthorization of the federal SCHIP legislation for children's health coverage, which put a 61-cent tax on cigarettes, which Jordan said the state Board of Equalization estimated would amount to about $43 million in less revenue for First 5.
“Whenever you increase the cost of a product, there is a corresponding reduction in the use or purchase of that product,” he said, noting that Congress isn't backfilling the funding that tobacco-based service programs like First 5 will lose.
“It obviously is going to mean a diminution of the services we can provide,” he said.
When the commission prepared to make its statement on Proposition 1D, staff looked at different scenarios from a programmatic perspective, said Jordan.
“We don’t have really large dollars going into any one program,” he said.
The largest amount of money, $110,000, goes to First 5's nurturing parenting program, which Jordan said has been “highly successful.” In March, the program served more than 300 parents and children combined.
Lake County First 5 is proposing to reduce that program by $40,000 if Proposition 1D passes, said Jordan.
AmeriCorps, whose workers serve in pre-kindergarten classrooms, would be reduced from $90,000 to $50,000, said Jordan, An $80,000 local match would be eliminated for a program that helps 50 families with school readiness; Jordan said that program is being considered for elimination. Another program that could be eliminated involves the quality and quantity of local child care and training for 51 local child care providers.
“Early intervention services are the commission’s preferred priority,” said Jordan, which is why the other services will be reduced first.
Lake County First 5 currently only has two full-time staffers – Jordan and Vicki Hays, the commission's secretary. Jordan said he thinks they can protect the positions for now, but maybe not over the next five years. He said it may come down to him having to make the recommendation that his own job be reduced to part-time to keep the program going.
Jordan said the state wants to shift the Proposition 10 money back into the general fund, where they'll use it for Child Protective Services, foster care, adoption and other mandated services in an effort to address larger state problems.
However, he said there's no guarantee that a comparable amount of dollars will come back to Lake County.
“You lose that local control,” he said. “That is one of the primary problems with the proposed legislation.”
That loss of control is an aspect of the legislation that Jordan said isn't clearly communicated.
Jordan will make a presentation to the Board of Supervisors on the First 5 Regional Impact Report and seek the board's support of the commission's opposition to Proposition 1D at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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