WHAT 1E WILL DO:
Redirects money to temporarily support Medi-Cal programs at risk of receiving funding cuts.
WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE YES:
The money is desperately needed, and the two-year time frame for redistribution is fair.
Only thing worse than stealing money from small sick children is stealing money from adults without the mental capacity to have any sort of say in the matter. The Mental Health Services Act, passed just five years ago by 53.8 percent of Californians, attempted to counteract a generation of rampant homelessness by shaving 1 percent off all salaries over $1 million and channeling the money toward mental-health programs and facilities.
Perfect ‘mdash; pull the money for those who can’t get a job from the back pockets of those with too much job to keep track of. That’s why 1E is trickier than 1D ‘mdash; paying a cigarette tax is debatably avoidable (i.e., don’t smoke), but a millionaire tax is more of a mandatory gift from the wealthy, and to change the recipient midstream should rightly disgruntle those tasked with giving it.
In this case, though, the change would only take two years and about $460 million, and would go toward the equally crucial ‘mdash; not to mention federally mandated ‘mdash; Medi-Cal program. Plus, like 1D, 1E can fall back on the $2.5 billion in reserves already raised for mental-health services by the short run of the millionaire tax so far. There’s nothing to do but cringe, check another ‘Yes’ and cross our fingers this doesn’t become a permanent fixture and force a whole new wave of mentally impaired Americans out on the center divide.
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