Joan Maltese
Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2003

It was no surprise that groups as disparate as the Orange County Taxpayers Association and the City of Berkeley opposed Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Proposition 49 during last years November election.

Schwarzenegger was the chief architect and sponsor of “Prop 49” as it is known, which locks in a massive funding increase for afterschool programs in California.

Prop 49 mandates that California’s budget spend $550 million a year on afterschool programs – a significant burden to California taxpayers who are now shouldering a $36 billion deficit.

At the time Schwarzenegger pushed from Prop 49 last year, the state was already swimming in red ink. But state voters agreed to the measure.

Today, Schwarzenegger has foresworn any tax increases – but the question remains: how will the public pay for new social programs like this one mandated by Prop 49?

And the way Prop 49 was crafted by Arnold’s team, it will be very difficult for Gov Schwarzenegger or any of the other would be governor to turn back the clock and reduce its size

Prop 49, as written, contains a sort of perpetuity clause, ensuring that the funding will never be decreased.

Should voters ever change their minds, they would have to pass another initiative specifically repealing it, or act on the still-unused Prop 98 passed in 1988.

The money goes to partnerships between schools and community resources that provide literacy, academic enrichment and constructive alternatives for kids in grades K through nine.

Law enforcement is part of the collaborative, and priority goes to schools in low-income neighborhoods. Eventually, it will establish an afterschool program at every public elementary, middle and junior high school in the state.

Parents have been found to be big supporters of afterschool programs in nationwide polling, and Prop 49 won over the California PTA along with scores of other child advocacy groups.

Voicing their beliefs, Schwarzenegger declared, “Every California child deserves access to a proven, quality, life-changing afterschool program.”

Multiplying the Risk

Broad support also came from law enforcement organizations, which warned of the dark side of a world without Prop 49. “Poor quality early care multiplies the risk that children will grow up to be a threat to every family and to every community,” said an organization called Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California.

Some of the literature really could make readers feel they were entering the voting booth with a gun at their heads. “If the two teenagers who robbed and killed my husband at his work at 5:30 p.m. had had the benefit of an after-school program, my family might still be whole,” said wife of murder victim Maggie Elvey of Crime Victims United of California.

And yet California newspaper editorials voiced overwhelming opposition, while individuals from some supporting organizations admitted that a second look would have brought them to the opposing side, too.

Although Prop 49 supporters outspent opponents by a thousand to one and enjoyed the star power, free media and money generated by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the proposition passed with only 56 percent of the vote.

It turns out that beyond afterschool programs is another issue: fiscal flexibility. With funds set in absolute amounts, Prop 49 shrinks the proportion of discretionary funds in California’s budget, already down to 25 percent.

Where would this leave the state in the type of emergency that Schwarzenegger himself admits could trigger a tax increase?

Schwarzenegger alluded to earthquakes and terrorist attacks, but already an unexpected problem has presented itself in the form of the West Nile virus, now in California. Or how about a pestilence in Wine Country, or a power outage?

An ironic consequence of the preference for afterschool is that if times get tougher, other kids’ entitlements could be cut.

As it is, California’s Child Welfare Services lost $28 million in 2002. Expenditures on health, nutrition, textbooks and teacher-child classroom ratios don’t have the type of funding guarantee that afterschool programs now have.

Thanks to Prop 49, voters, legislators, and even the governor have lost a chunk of power to prioritize other child-related budget concerns year to year.

Actor/politico Clint Eastwood has already warned Schwarzenegger to beware what he wants. Arnold got what he wanted with Prop 49, now the California taxpayer is suffering.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

California Governors Race

Editor's note:
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