Budgeting Propositions; t’ain’t no more – Prop 2, Prop 38 & Prop 44
07 Monday Sep 2026
Written by redqueeninla in 2026 November General Election, AD55 Newsletter, CA, Children's health, Poverty, Public Health, Trumpism
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Ballot Propositions, biomedical research, Budget reserves, budgeting, California Propositions, clinic overhead, Federally Qualified Health Center, Gann limit, Good Governance, governance, immunological research, immunology, immunotherapy, November 2026 General Election, Poll tax, Prop 2, Prop 38, Prop 44, Rainy day fund, scientific research
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This last set of Propositions (follow these hyperlinks for the first four posts on billionaires, kid-critical, housing and election reform Propositions) – all involve budgeting, and the necessity of compensating for the effect of Trump’s tax cuts for the rich as they ‘trickle-up’. The foundational redistribution of monies has compelled some very graceless maneuvers trying to counteract damage to the fiscal landscape.
Prop 2 is a state budgeting initiative that raises the limit on its rainy day fund, and also changes the way some deposits to that account are calculated. Regular deposits will be required until the rainy day fund reaches 20% of General Fund tax revenues. When capital gains are particularly high, more of these funds will be requisitioned.
This analysis from California’s Legislative Analyst Office is comprehensive, but the complicated measure is better explained clearly and concisely in context by these “comments” of the floor analysis of the state Senate:
“This measure amends Proposition 2 of 2014 to expand the ability for the State to build Rainy Day budget reserves during robust fiscal years so that more funding is available in difficult budget years. This measure is informed by the experience of the State over the last ten years, when the Rainy Day Fund was tested by extreme volatility, resulting in a broad consensus that the fund needed to be larger to provide the stability and certainty that Proposition 2 envisioned. This measure achieves this goal by doubling the cap of the fund, increasing the amount of excess capital gains tax revenues that will be deposited in unusually robust years, and clarifying that deposits into the Rainy Day Fund are not treated as spending when calculating the State Appropriations Limit (the Gann limit), but that when funds are withdrawn from account they are counted for that purpose.”
YES on 2 is dictated by the empirical experience of our legislators, the folks we elected to do our public work. We should vote with the evidence.
Prop 38, like Prop 40, seeks to backfill a deficit created by federal MAGA policies. But rather than clawback redress from the .01% benefiting from HR1 welfare cuts (Prop 40’s strategy), this measure would regionally heal cuts in immunological scientific research and biomedical immunotherapy through $8.4 billion in general obligation bonds.
MAGA adds insult to injury in requiring us to pay twice to support a scientific biomedical research complex that was so recently the envy of the world. Failing to obtain our due returns on federal taxes, this proposal instead sustains a vital industry in-state, simultaneously boosting jobs, healing and potential revenue. Why this isn’t happening federally – to the common good of one and all across the nation – is absolutely unfathomable. But until this psychosis of antisociality passes, at the least fellow Californians can benefit from this particular avenue of research which derives life-giving therapy.
The measure is potentially self-sustaining from patents and profits generated, but regardless the measure is invaluable as a reflection of the sort of society we wish to be, sustaining a positive feedback loop of common good for industry, knowledge, and health. Even though narrowly prescribed, please vote YES on 38 to sustain this essential corner of scientific research and its consequential findings.
Prop 44 is a sensationalized solution to a powerful problem – how to focus money efficiently where it is most needed, equitably and without doing harm.
All organizations face this problem. But in the instance this proposition addresses – healthcare clinics – there is a systemic structure that must be supported even while tilting against special interests that may have grabbed an inequitable share of resources.
The proposal was intended to address excessive administrator pay, but instead of facing that issue head-on, its language specifies that Federally Qualified Health Centers very broadly “spend at least 90% of their revenue on program services advancing their charitable purpose, including but not limited to patient services, rather than management and overhead.”
This jeopardizes the support services incidental to front line clinical care: rent, maintenance, clinical tests and testing, administration.
No one runs a business this way, performatively maintaining front line services at the expense of systemically necessary support services. And no one wants to have their business plan mandated in this way – the demand is impractical, the requirement is oppressive and mostly, the proposition does harm to the endeavor’s core purpose. Whether that “business” be, say, a school, a hostel or a Federally Qualified Health Center.
Vote NO on 44 to preserve the mandate of healthcare clinics to provide full service patient care.
Here is a final summary of all fourteen of November’s Proposition-positions. The essay where each is explained is hyperlinked below.
| Proposition | position | Shorter name | Short name |
| Prop 1 | YES | Housing bond | Bond for Housing Affordability Programs |
| Prop 2 | YES | Rainy Day Fund | Increase Budget Stabilization Account cap |
| Prop 3 | YES | Sets top tax rate | “Millionaires tax” (retains highest-income taxation) |
| Prop 4 | YES | Public campaign financing | Permits Public Financing of Campaigns statewide |
| Prop 5 | YES | Recall Reform | Reforms Statewide Recall Elections procedure |
| Prop 37 | YES | Loan program | Loan Program for Middle-Income Home Buyers |
| Prop 38 | YES | Immunology | Immunology and immunotherapy bond for research |
| Prop 39 | NO | Voter ID | Prohibits citizens from voting without government ID |
| Prop 40 | YES | Billionaires tax | “Billionaires tax” (backfills looted healthcare dollars) |
| Prop 41 | NO | Prop 40 buttress | Designed to engulf Prop 40 |
| Prop 42 | NO | Prop 40 buttress | Designed to engulf Prop 40 |
| Prop 43 | NO | Curbs local taxation | Constrains local taxation choice |
| Prop 44 | NO | Clinic budgeting | Predetermines healthcare clinic budgeting |
| Prop 45 | NO | CEQA | Modifies Environmental Review |
