In 1998, Hollywood actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner championed the California Children and Families First Act, which put a 50-cent-a-pack tax on cigarettes to fund an early childhood development program.
Reiner's ballot measure, Proposition 10, overcame well-financed opposition by the tobacco industry to gain a narrow victory.
Proposition 1D would shift nearly $1.7 billion over the next five years -- about 70% of the cigarette tax's revenue during that period -- to help balance the state general fund.
Proposition 1E, meanwhile, would siphon money from mental health programs financed under a 2004 ballot measure, Proposition 63, which put an extra 1% tax on personal income over $1 million. That measure, pushed by state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), garnered a victory with 54% of the votes.
Under 1E, about $460 million over the next two years -- roughly a quarter of the extra income tax's revenue during that time -- would be diverted to help balance the state's books.
The early childhood and mental health programs became prime targets for budget negotiators working to solve the state's $42-billion deficit. They were sporting a budget surplus of about $2.5 billion each at a time when health and welfare programs funded the old-fashioned way -- through the state's general fund appropriations -- were being stripped.
Backers say those surpluses were a fiscal mirage, because the money had been committed to future programs or was being saved for tough times.
Meanwhile, the two chief proponents have come down on starkly different sides.
Steinberg helped put together the February budget deal that put 1D and 1E on the ballot.
Reiner thinks it's another sign of the decline of governance in the California Republic.
"It's unbelievably shortsighted on their part," Reiner said. "These programs are designed to save money for the state -- to put children on the right path so they're not a drain on the system."
Reiner said he never would have pushed his original proposition if the Legislature had performed its job in the first place.
"The reason you have all these initiatives is you can't get anything done in Sacramento," he said. "That's why you have people like me stepping up. But I don't think it's the best way to govern."
Steinberg, meanwhile, has become one of the most eloquent boosters of Propositions 1D and 1E. The campaign has pitted him against friends from the fight for mental health programs.
