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> Newsom’s desperate email comes as Proposition 1, a$6.4 billion initiative to provide more public housing and mental health services,currently holds a thin lead.

This is another mischaracterized proposition. The opposition says:

ARGUMENT AGAINST PROPOSITION 1

Governor Newsom's Proposition 1 is a nightmare for taxpayers, cities and counties, and people with mental illness.

Prop. 1 is so huge, expensive, and destructive, it's already attracted a BIPARTISAN coalition of opponents. Vote NO because:

PROP. 1 WILL COST TAXPAYERS MORE THAN $10 BILLION. Prop. 1 puts taxpayers on the hook for DECADES to pay back new bonds. This isn’t "free money!" It's credit card borrowing from Wall Street. According to Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, bonds are the most expensive and inefficient way to pay for a government program. And with interest rates today, it's a VERY BAD TIME to be taking on new bond debt, adding at least 60% IN INTEREST COSTS, costing taxpayers an estimated $10.58 - $12.45 billion. This will take decades to pay back. The State should have prioritized spending through the budget process when we had a $100 billion state budget surplus. Our children will be paying our debts, and their streets won’t be any cleaner for it.

PROP. 1 ISN'T A SOLUTION TO HOMELESSNESS. The State has failed at reducing California's homelessness problem. Sacramento has already thrown $20 billion at the crisis in the last five years without making significant progress. The number of unhoused people increased 6% last year. The State Auditor's Office is still trying to find where the billions went.

We will indeed have more tents in our neighborhoods and fewer people in treatment if Prop. 1 passes.

If the state wants a grand solution for homelessness, it should attack the heart of the problem through the regular budget process–not expensive bond measures that RAISE TAXPAYER COSTS LONG-TERM. Californians are already some of the most over-taxed people in the country.

PROP. 1 CUTS SERVICES FOR THE MENTALLY ILL. In 2004, the voters passed Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), which dedicated funds for community-based mental health services. Prop. 1 STEALS AWAY almost 1/3 of that guaranteed annual funding from the "millionaire's tax" leaving already underfunded programs to fight for the remaining money. That's why CalVoices, California's oldest mental health advocacy agency, opposes it.

PROP. 1 MANDATES STATE CONTROL OVER LOCAL CONTROL, WITH REDUCED OVERSIGHT.California's 58 urban and rural counties all have different needs. Prop. 1 brings a one-size-fits-all program and puts a huge, unaccountable state agency in charge. The voter-approved MHSA was locally based, allowing counties to set their own priorities, with mandatory, independent oversight and accountability. Under Prop. 1, oversight and accountability are watered down, instead giving authority to the governor and his bureaucrats. This threatens effective programs that counties already offer.

Leave it to Sacramento to find a way to INCREASE COSTS, CUT VITAL PROGRAMS, and offer only UNPROVEN IDEAS! Far from being a magic solution, Prop. 1 is a multibillion dollar disaster that will hurt the very people it claims to help. And who's left holding the bag when Prop. 1 fails? The taxpayers, once again.

THIS IS THE WRONG APPROACH. VOTE NO ON PROP. 1.

Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones

Assemblymember Diane B. Dixon

Heidi Strunk, CEO

Mental Health America of California

https://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/propositions/1/arguments-rebuttals.htm