Senate Bill X3 16 (Cox) California Children and Families Program: Funding

On June 17, 2008, State Senator Dave Cox introduced Senate Bill 16 which proposed to eliminate all Proposition 10 funding to First 5 Commissions and redirect the funds to other state and local governmental agencies. If passed by the legislature, Senate Bill 16 would go to the voters in the next statewide election (scheduled for November 2008) where it would require a two-thirds majority of those voting to pass.

Proposition 10, passed in November 1998, established the California Children and Families Act to fund early childhood development services to improve the health and well-being of children from birth to 5 years old and their families. Under the Act, taxes imposed on cigarettes and other tobacco products are deposited into the California Children and Families Trust Fund and then distributed to the state First 5 Commission (20%) and 58 local First 5 Commissions. Each county commission has the discretion and authority to determine which services it will fund based on local planning.

SB 16 essentially repeals the California Children and Families Act by proposing to:
      • Eliminate Proposition 10 funding to the state and local commissions
      • Send all future revenues to the state General Fund to be used for the Healthy Families Program and the Medi-Cal Program
      • Redirect all unencumbered fund balances of the state and local commissions to the state General Fund, local boards of     education, the counties and the cities. (Note: “unencumbered” does not seem to be defined in SB 16. It’s unclear at this point, for example, whether multi-year grants for which there are not multi-year contracts in place would fall into the “unencumbered” category.)
      • Abolish all First 5 commissions 90 days after voter passage.

First 5 provides a unique local funding source because it is based entirely on local planning and decision making. The funds invested locally by each First 5 county commission are specific to the needs to that county – not state mandates or top-down directives.

Many county First 5 commissions are political footballs, but that is not the case in the East Bay. We are fortunate that both Contra Costa and Alameda First 5 Commissions serve our communities well by being independent, autonomous bodies.

Whether your agency is funded by First 5 dollars or not, we encourage you to read this legislation and to make your boards and staff aware of it as well.

AB 624 update

Assemblyman Joe Coto (D-San Jose) dropped AB 624 when 10 of California’s largest foundations agreed to a multimillion-dollar, multiyear investment in minority communities. Foundations involved in the agreement are the William and Flora Hewitt Foundation, the Ahmanson Foundation, the California Endowment, the James Irvine Foundation, the UniHealth Foundation, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.