Nicotine Benefits Kids
Steve Choi
Corsair Columnist

Thank you cigarette smokers.

Thanks to your tax contributions by Proposition 10, which voters approved in California in 1998, your 50-cent increase in tax per pack is providing an estimated $165 million to the county.

This means that smokers will be footing the bill for the newly proposed free universal preschool program in the Los Angeles County. The plan, which will initially need $100 million dollars to start, will be benefiting 3- and 5-year-olds at first according to the Initiative Status Report.

No one can argue this isn’t a great idea, especially working mothers with toddlers, but I think the Los Angeles County Children and Families First Commission is being shortsighted about this plan.

So before you jump on the bandwagon, chew on these thoughts for a bit:
If the plan first needs initially $100 million, how much more will it need to upkeep this project? Currently, according to the ISR, there are 454,128 children between the ages of three and five. But, at the rate Los Angeles grows, funding will dwindle fast with population growth. Also, childcare profession is one of the lowest paid careers in the nation. If this unified childcare is created, how much will the faculty get paid? If you add it all up, the funding sooner or later will go beyond the capacity of cigarette taxes.

Then, to support such a massive group of individuals, a bureaucracy will be needed to oversee the paper work and the money. This means administrative costs will also be included in this bill, not to mention distant administrators that are not in touch with the many facilities in the area.

Where will the resources be used first? That question is a lawsuit waiting to happen. In the ISR, it suggests the poorest areas receive attention first. Who is to determine the distribution of wealth? What about illegal children? Will they receive attention too, just as they receive attention in free county hospitals? Whoever benefits first, there are going to be groups crying bloody murder that they are being treated unfairly.

Just as public education system is now, there will always be the privatized counterpart. And in the long run, since the private programs will be able to fund bigger and better projects, those in the public education will be crying for equality. Soon enough people will be asking for government instead of funding childcare facilities, instead give families a choice with vouchers.

On top of all this, politics have to play a little. Currently, the San Fernando Valley is trying to secede from the L.A. County. If this takes place, this commission will have to split the tobacco tax with its new neighbors of the valley.

But Angelenos be warned, once a social program is in place, it’s practically impossible to get rid of it without causing an outcry from the community. If we were to actually be successful in this program, we have to be in it for the long haul. The way Los Angeles Unified School District runs its high schools; it’s a poor indicator for investment in the children now.

If we have additional money to be spread for the well being of our children, improve the system that’s already there. Children’s healthcare in L.A. is in a spiral turn, the K-12 education system has 736,675 students in dire need of assistance, and housing for lower income families will surely improve the future of these children.

Then again, maybe the smokers should speak up and give some input. It is their tax money.