CCAGW Urges ‘NO’ on California’s Prop 29

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, as California completed its first full week of early voting for the June 5, 2012 presidential primary election and several ballot initiatives, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) urged voters to reject Proposition 29, which would place a $1 levy on each pack of cigarettes sold in California.

Carefully packaged as a cancer research initiative that would raise $735 million annually, there is more to Prop 29 than meets the eye. The measure would create a new state commission, which will manage the research funds and be governed by a nine-member board comprised of university, cancer center, physician and advocacy group representatives. These political appointees will be allowed to spend $110 million annually on office space and facilities, plus an additional $15 million on consultants, salaries and travel. The commissioners will be totally unaccountable to taxpayers since Prop 29 specifically prohibits the governor, legislature and even the state auditor from making changes to the initiative for 15 years, even in the case of fraud or waste.

The lack of transparency and accountability for this new cancer research commission is not the only troubling fact about Prop 29. The 4,000-word measure provides no requirement that the money raised stay in the state. This means that Californians may end up funding projects and creating jobs in other states at their own expense.

The federal government already spends $6 billion annually on cancer research and the state of California already funds $70 million per year on anti-tobacco programs. Creating a duplicative program would not only be extremely wasteful, it would burden Californians with the responsibility of funding medical research that ultimately benefits everyone in the country. Cancer research has been and should continue to be funded by the federal government, non-profit organizations, and private companies.

Additionally, California, which is infamous for its massive budget failures, has many unmet needs. An April 27, 2012 Los Angeles Times editorial noted, “California can’t afford to retain its K-12 teachers, keep all its parks open, give public college students the courses they need to earn a degree or provide adequate home health aides for the infirm or medical care for the poor. If the state is going to raise a new $735 million, it should put the money in the general fund rather than dedicating it to an already well-funded research effort.” It is clear that California has misplaced priorities if it chooses to spend money creating duplicative programs at the expense of other services.

“Prop 29 would be a wasteful concept anywhere,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. “In a state like California, where the projected 2012 budget deficit of $9.2 billion is now expected to be $10.2 billion, it is an absurd idea.”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.