Proposition 1, a statewide bond measure championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom as crucial to solving the state's mental health and homelessness crisis, was leading early returns Tuesday evening in California's primary.
The measure redirects an existing tax on the wealthy under the state's 20-year-old mental health services law to fund services for people with substance use disorders, and includes a $6.4 billion bond to build more than 10,000 treatment beds.
Newsom campaigned from San Francisco to San Diego in the run-up to the primary, urging voters to pass the measure to address the most vexing issue of the governor's office and the most visible challenge in his home state, where voters have become alarmed by the number of people living in tents and under highways. In big and small cities.
At rallies and in ads, Newsom has portrayed Proposition 1 as an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past when the state closed state mental health hospitals in the 1960s without strengthening local services, “resulting in decades of neglect.”
Support. “Finally writing a new chapter,” Newsom said. 1. “Support. 1. The truth is a historical error.
About 181,000 people statewide, including 75,000 in Los Angeles County, are homeless, according to 2023 statistics. As many as 82% of unhoused individuals have a serious mental health condition, and nearly two-thirds of them at some point use drugs. Illicit drugs regularly, according to a recent study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco.
Arguing that the status quo is not working, Newsom has pushed a series of policies since taking office to begin to address the problem, such as expanding the criteria by which people can be held against their will to include substance use disorders, giving families and authorities the ability to ask courts to force treatment for people and expanding the availability of shelters. Temporary and permanent.
For the record:
7:50 PM on March 5, 2024An earlier version of this article stated that the Mental Health Services Act was approved by voters in 2023. Voters approved it in 2004.
The first proposal complements those efforts by revamping the Mental Health Services Act, approved by voters in 2004, to include treatment for those with substance use disorders regardless of whether they have a mental health condition or not. The law imposes a 1% tax on income over $1 million to fund the expansion of mental health treatment options in California, which would be redirected under Proposition 1.
The measure also increases state oversight of county behavioral health spending at a time when Newsom has repeatedly questioned local governments' resolve to solve the problem.
But every move Newsom takes faces opposition from both the right and the left.
Liberal organizations worry that Newsom's policies, such as CAIR Court and expanded conservatorships, could violate civil rights, prevent people from seeking help for fear of being forced into care, and put people in treatment more harshly than necessary. Local governments have raised concerns about their ability to fund the governor's more ambitious policy directives and quickly train police and other employees to comply with the new laws.
Meanwhile, voters are frustrated by the lack of progress, and Republicans assert that unchecked liberal governance in California is the cause of the crisis.
Opponents of Proposition 1 cited the high price tag as one reason they wanted voters to reject the measure.
“No matter your political stance, there is something to hate about Proposition 1,” Paul Simons, director of Californians Against Proposition 1, said in a statement issued before the election. “Whether it's the cost, the record of failure, or the fact that Proposition 1 is hurting people accessing mental health services now, there are flashing red lights everywhere.”
The California Department of Finance estimates that the behavioral health infrastructure bonds under Proposition 1 would cost a total of $14 billion. The bonds, purchased by investors, act as loans that the state repays with interest.
Two bills that sent the measure to the ballot in March received rare bipartisan support in the state Legislature, with Republicans and Democrats leaving their party corners to offer voters a potential solution to a problem plaguing the state. But voters did not appear to share the bipartisan spirit by Election Day.
The measure swung with just 50% support in a UC Berkeley Institute of Government poll co-sponsored by The Times conducted in late February. A large majority of Republican voters opposed the measure, raising concerns about how Proposition 1 would perform in elections with higher GOP turnout.
