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Abortion notification, tobacco tax make November ballot
| Tuesday, Jun 20 2006 3:15 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Jun 20 2006 3:15 PM
California voters will get a second chance to rule on whether parents should be notified when their daughters seek abortions.
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They'll also decide whether tobacco taxes should be raised to pay for a variety of anti-smoking and health care programs.
Secretary of State Bruce McPherson said Tuesday that both initiatives had attracted enough voter signatures to make the November ballot.
They join eight other proposals that previously made the ballot, although a bill moving through the Legislature would move one of those measures, a $9.95 billion high-speed rail bond, to the November 2008 ballot.
The abortion measure would require parents to be notified 48 hours before their minor child had an abortion, unless the parents or a judge waived the requirement. Voters rejected an almost identical measure, Proposition 73, last November with nearly 53 percent of the vote.
The tobacco tax measure would raise cigarette taxes by $2.60 a pack and boost taxes on other tobacco products to raise about $2 billion a year.
The money would be used for emergency medical services, nursing instruction, health insurance for children, anti-smoking programs and enforcement of tobacco laws. It also would be used to research prevention and treatment of certain cancers, heart disease, strokes, asthma and obesity.
The other measures on the ballot include bond measures to pay for transportation improvements, flood control programs, affordable housing, school construction, and water quality and park programs.
There also is a measure to increase penalties for, and monitoring of, sex offenders.
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