Channel 5 KPIX Transcript - Proposition 10.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 26, 1998--

Attached please find transcript from an interview on Proposition 10 by Hank Plante which aired on KPIX-TV San Francisco on Oct. 24. It explains many aspects of Prop. 10, which would create 59 new separate state and county commissions with $700 million in new tax revenue. This report features comments by Dr. Wilson Riles, the former State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who has just announced his opposition to Prop. 10.

Channel 5 KPIX Transcript - Proposition 10

ANCHOR: At KPIX we continue to look at California propositions. Tonight we examine Proposition Ten, the measure that would impose an additional cigarette tax to fund children's programs. But as we've seen with other ballot measures this year, things are often not what they seem. HANK PLANTE is here to wade through it.

REPORTER: Some people have been calling this the Meathead initiative, named after that character Rob Reiner played. It was Reiner who put this one on the ballot and who is its lead quarterback. Actor director Rob Reiner can command a lot of talk show appearances, as he has this week in his push for Proposition 10.

ROB REINER: It's a 50-cent tax on the cigarettes and it will fund early childhood development and healthcare for kids.

REPORTER: But as simple as it sounds, there is serious opposition to the plan, and not just from the tobacco companies. First of all it's a matter of who pays, in other words who smokes. The answer is poor people. Studies show the more affluent and educated you are, the less likely you are to smoke. Secondly, the plan creates 58 new bureaucracies, one in each county, with little accountability. That turns off people like former State School Superintendent Wilson Riles, who has heard all this before.

WILSON RILES: For years they tried to get the lottery passed in California and it was voted down. And then someone got the idea, well, we will use the money for education. It's a scam and it's time to stop these scams.

REPORTER: Then there's what some see as Reiner's Hollywood attitude about all this. Consider his testimony last month in Sacramento.

REINER: The one good thing about this initiative I have to say is the fact that I'm involved. And it's not because of what you think, you know, in terms of getting it passed -- because that helps, that there's somebody who is recognizable and has access to media.

REPORTER: Reiner even added that if the law isn't being followed properly he'll take his case to the media again.

RILES: I think Rob Reiner is being a little naive. Those of us who have been in the preliminary arena for as many years as I have can tell you very clearly that this kind of going to the media response isn't going to work.

REPORTER: Reiner may be getting a lot of calls to fix things over the next few years, because for now his Proposition Ten looks destined to pass. Reiner has enlisted a lot of Hollywood support for his campaign. Contributions have come from Tom Cruise, Spielberg, and Robin Williams. Big tobacco is fighting hard against it with an estimated $15 million in ads to defeat it.

ANCHOR: Has Reiner put any money into this?

REPORTER: He has pledged $2 million of his personal fortune, but we understand that so far he's only put up 25,000.