California poll measures have generated eye-popping spending by particular curiosity teams and industries, generally even once they have little likelihood of profitable on the poll field.
Simply ask California’s dialysis clinics, who for the third time in as many elections, are preventing again a bid by a well being care employees union to alter their enterprise mannequin. And nearing the top of spherical three, it has grow to be some of the costly proposition fights in Golden State historical past.
Since 2018 the dialysis firms have spent greater than $302 million to oppose the measures, and that quantity is more likely to proceed to develop by way of November. That's greater than the $205 million Uber, Lyft and Doordash spent in 2020 on a measure to exempt their firms from a state regulation that categorised their drivers as staff. However it's nonetheless shy of the record-breaking $400 million spent to date this yr by on-line gaming and tribal casinos on either side of Propositions 26 and 27, which might legalize sports activities playing.
Proposition 29 is the newest try by the Service Workers Worldwide Union-United Healthcare Employees West union (SEIU-UHW) to problem the dialysis business status-quo with new rules, even after voters rejected the union’s makes an attempt twice. So why are they making an attempt a 3rd time?
The “No on 29” marketing campaign, backed by the dialysis firms, says the union is abusing California’s direct democracy system, making an attempt to push the businesses to the negotiating desk and acquire leverage. However the union says the dialysis business is making large income off susceptible sufferers. Proposition 29 backers insist they're simply utilizing the instruments obtainable to examine company energy, and attain their broader coverage targets.
The spending traits by both sides are telling: The dialysis firms spent over $100 million in 2018 and once more in 2020. This time, as of late September 2022, that they had poured $86 million into opposing Proposition 29, however the union is hardly campaigning for the measure this yr, since getting it on the poll.
The latest proposition is “a carbon copy” of the 2020 measure, based on Kathy Fairbanks, spokesperson for the “No on 29” marketing campaign. She questions the union’s dedication to getting the measure handed, mentioning they solely put up a “Sure on 29” web site final week, in late September. “They bought in on the poll and that was sufficient for them,” she mentioned. “They’re simply strolling away.”
SEIU-UHW spent almost $20 million on the primary dialysis proposition in 2018, together with tens of millions on promoting. However in 2020 the union spent half that, round $9 million. To this point within the 2021/2022 season, the union has amassed $8 million, spent nearly fully on signature amassing to qualify the measure.
The battle over dialysis clinics isn’t the one proposition this yr the place victory on the poll field will not be the top objective.
Huge Tobacco has contributed $16 million to an effort to overturn a state regulation that bans the sale of flavored tobacco merchandise. Even when it doesn’t win, the tobacco business was in a position to delay the ban for almost two years simply by qualifying the measure for the poll, clearing the way in which for a whole lot of tens of millions of dollars in continued gross sales.
And earlier this yr, after seeing their payments to scale back plastic air pollution defeated repeatedly within the Legislature, environmental teams collected sufficient signatures to position a measure on the poll requiring firms to make use of much less plastic and take again their merchandise for recycling. Fearing a loss on the poll field, the businesses then labored out a compromise, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the invoice, and the environmental teams pulled the measure off the poll.
Not everybody buys the argument that the well being care employees union is simply making an attempt to kneecap the dialysis business to have a greater seat at a future bargaining desk. “If the union had some deep 3D chess political recreation about union membership, you'd assume after two defeats they may have picked one thing else by now,” mentioned Shaun Bowler, a political science professor at UC Riverside.
David Miller, analysis director for the SEIU-UHW, says the union’s objective is easy: affected person security.
“We are attempting so as to add one workers individual per shift to those dialysis clinics,” he mentioned of the proposition’s requirement that clinics have a physician, doctor assistant or nurse practitioner on-site throughout remedy. “It’s not very radical.”
Dialysis clinics are the place about 80,000 Californians with end-stage kidney illness go to get remedies two to 3 occasions per week, an costly and life-saving process. The 2 firms that dominate the business in California, DaVita and Fresenius, function three-quarters of the 600 clinics within the state. The business brings in an estimated $3.5 billion in income from operations in California yearly.
The dialysis firms say the added rules and related prices may pressure them to shut clinics, making it a “harmful” proposition that might damage sufferers. The California Legislative Analyst’s Workplace predicts the measure “would improve every clinic’s prices by a number of hundred thousand dollars yearly on common.”
Miller mentioned his union was approached years in the past to assist unionize some dialysis employees, which opened their eyes to how the business works and how much modifications they may push.
Dave Regan, the present president of SEIU-UHW, has made a status for himself and his union by sponsoring native and statewide poll measures every year, and on their web site, they brag that “Regan is a number one proponent of utilizing poll initiatives to scale back financial inequality and enhance the usual of dwelling for working individuals and their households.” These measures have been about points starting from elevating the minimal wage to hospital costs and CEO pay.
Dr. Bryan Wong, an East Bay nephrologist who works with hospitals and for-profit dialysis clinics and opposes Proposition 29, mentioned he's confused by the union’s technique to convey the problem again to voters a 3rd time.
“Prop. 29 is sort of a rewrite of Prop. 23, which failed,” he mentioned. “I don’t know why they assume this might be one thing new that the voters will change their thoughts on.”