This special report originally appeared in the September-October 2001 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Prop. 10: Weaving a web of support for young children and families

Not enough money!

In its first year, the Prop. 10 cigarette tax raised more than $670 million. One fifth went to the state Children and Families Commission, four-fifths to the counties. That sounds like a lot of money, but people working in the county Prop. 10 process quickly saw that it wasn't enough to pay for a comprehensive system of early childhood support and development.

In addition, the funds available from Prop. 10 are expected to drop every year. That's partly because Prop. 10 is achieving its other goal of discouraging smoking, especially smoking by young people. It's also because, as one commissioner said, "People are getting craftier about how to buy cigarettes." So far Prop. 10 revenues are falling faster than projected.

Leveraging other funds

"We're hiring a consultant to work with us to make a plan to claim all possible federal and state funds, and potentially private, too." -Mark Friedman, executive director, Alameda

"We have to look for other sources that can take on longer-term funding - maybe Prop. 10 could do seed funding." -Jackie Dollar, commissioner, Napa

Connecting existing programs

"We, the commission, can't fund 10 family resource centers. We have to think about how to use our dollars to bring service providers to those centers and to ensure that programs that are essential get funded. We don't have very many dollars so the best way we can use them is to create better ways to use the resources we currently have, as well as fill gaps and make services more universal, using our convening power."" -Kathy Tabor, commission chair, Contra Costa

Building community awareness

"Through the [Prop. 10] process there was definitely more understanding in the community of all the areas that affect children [and development of] unified goals for improving outcomes for kids." -Susie Shupe, executive director, Family Action of Sonoma County.

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