Wading through the ballot propositions
If you are like me you will be happy when the election is over so you don’t have to view the Indian gaming/gambling proposition ads. The massive ad campaigns for Prop 26 and 27 are the most expensive in the history of California, over a half a billion dollars.
The General Election Guide notes there are already 23,000 stores that sell state lottery tickets, 84 cardrooms in 32 counties, four privately operated racetracks, publicly operated racetracks in 17 counties that offer betting on horse racing, and 66 tribal casinos in 28 counties. You would think that should be enough gambling opportunities. I think that instead of expanding locations for gambling, and opening it up to online gambling, they should have expanded from horseracing and sports to betting on elections. What could possibly go wrong?
Prop 29 challenges our patience. This is the third time the kidney dialysis ballot measure has been put in our hands. Do you think you know enough about medical procedures for dialysis to make an informed vote? The spending on ads is second only to the two gaming propositions. Clinics for dialysis do an estimated 3.5 billion dollars a year in California – you think that is what this is about, dividing up the business? There are 650 clinics with 80,000 patients a month. Two private for-profit companies own or operate 75% of licensed clinics in California.
The main feature of Prop 29 is that it would require the clinics to have a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant with six months experience on site during treatment. This at a time when there is a national shortage of physicians and nurses in general, but it should be a similar problem for dialysis clinics. The requirement would increase costs.
The real issue here is not about patient safety, the measure is pushed by the unions, SEIU-UHW, to organize dialysis clinic workers.
Think back a few years and remember that when you needed a flu shot you had to make an appointment at your doctor’s office. These days with the shortage of medical personnel and the growing number of seniors it can be weeks before you get an appointment. That problem was solved when administering shots was doled out to local pharmacies – faster service, less expensive, a win/win, and people are not complaining that a nurse or physician is administering the shot.
The good news is that there are only seven propositions on this year’s ballot. The reason is that the number of signatures necessary to put something on the ballot is a percentage of the total number of voters in the previous election. The 2020 election broke voter records, so the number of signatures required went way up.
The bad news is that some propositions did not get the required number of signatures, but the midterms will have fewer voters so those, and many others, will be trying in 2024 so we are likely to be back to double digit proposition numbers.
We should all work together to get a proposition that prohibits paid signature gathers and money spent on ballot commercials. Wouldn’t that be a giant step for democracy?
(Tim Willoughby moved to the Eastern Sierra more than 10 years ago after a 30-year career as a teacher and principal. He was the Democratic candidate for the 25th Congressional District in 2004. Willoughby also pens a weekly local history column for the Aspen Times.)