Slide 36 of 63

The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative requires grantees to purchase at least 50% of goods and services from California suppliers. On the surface, this sounds like a good thing - to keep the money in California. However, most medical suppliers are located on the East Coast. Such as restriction could hamper the actual research it was designed to encourage.

In an unusual provision, the initiative calls for real estate development and construction of facilities for up to $300 million dollars. Such funding is never provided in federal grants, since established investigators already have laboratories at research institutions. Such a provision is ripe for pork - kickbacks to companies and individuals who are funding the initiative.

The size of the grant awards is enormous by federal grant standards. In my job, our research group has a number of federal grants. Most of the grants are funded for a few hundred thousand dollars a year (including the one that pays my salary). Our group has one "Center" grant, which is funded for over one million dollars a year. However, this grant funds investigators and research at several different institutions. The 6 million dollar allowance provided in the initiative is virtually unheard of. Such high limits of awards is guaranteed to foster waste in an attempt to spend all the money.

Links

• Proposition 71 Voter's Guide (www.NoOn71.us)

• Arguments Against Proposition 71: The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative