This guide shares The Children’s Partnership’s positions on three California ballot propositions. We urge voters to keep children’s health equity top-of-mind for all choices this election.
NO on Proposition 35
Protect flexibility for children’s health funding.
Prop 35 removes state budget flexibility and severely limits future Managed Care Organization (MCO) tax revenues. This jeopardizes Medi-Cal expansions and safety net programs that benefit children’s health, including community health workers, mental health services, and continuous coverage for children under 5.
Prop 35 also leaves no room for community voice, putting special interests in charge of health care funding.
TCP strongly supports the MCO tax and investments in provider rates. However, we need the ability to be flexible when it comes to crafting a state budget that supports and protects the Medi-Cal program as a whole. This is especially important in tough budget years.
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YES on Proposition 5
Give cities tools to create affordable housing.
Prop 5 is targeted to the urgent housing needs of local communities. This measure gives local governments a more realistic financing option to fund an increase in the supply of affordable housing, and to address the numerous local public infrastructure challenges cities, counties and special districts are facing.
Currently, local communities must secure 67% of the vote to pass housing and other infrastructure bonds. This often means that measures fail with 60% or more of voters in support. Prop 5 sets the voting threshold at 55%, ensuring a majority of voters support a project.
With our state’s current housing crisis, we need to make securing funding easier, not harder.
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YES on Proposition 33
Stable housing is essential for children’s health.
Prop 33 gives local communities the right to stabilize rents and make apartments more affordable for low-income and middle-income renters. This addresses root causes of homelessness, skyrocketing rents and unaffordable housing.
Currently, state law prohibits local communities from taking certain kinds of actions, such as enacting rent regulations on any single family homes or homes or apartments built before 1995. Prop 33 eliminates these prohibitions, putting control in the hands of local governments to decide what’s best for their communities.
Housing insecurity leads to many cascading, harmful health effects. We should do all we can to ensure stable, affordable housing for children and families.
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YESon33.org
CalMatters Explains Prop 35 (Includes Video)
Concerns about Proposition 36
While TCP does not have a formal position on Prop 36, we are concerned about elements of the proposal that may undermine our mission of supporting children’s health equity.
Prop 36 reclassifies some theft and drug crimes as felonies and increases punishment for these crimes. The proposition also creates a treatment-focused court process for drug possession. Prop 36 would greatly increase the state prison population as well as state criminal justice costs with no funding to cover new expenses. This would reduce the amount that the state could spend on other restorative services, such as mental health and drug treatment, K-12 school programs that support vulnerable youth and victim services.
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About The Children’s Partnership (TCP)
The Children’s Partnership is a nonprofit California advocacy organization advancing child health equity through research, policy and community engagement. TCP envisions a California where all children—regardless of their race, ethnicity or place of birth—have the resources and opportunities they need to grow up healthy and thrive. www.ChildrensPartnership.org
