Science, health research bond to appear on March 2028 ballot

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(The Center Square) – A bond that would cost California’s taxpayers $7.5 billion for health and science research will go on the March 2028 primary election ballot.

The bill that originated the bond, Senate Bill 895, authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would create a new agency under the California Government Operations Agency called the California Foundation for Science and Health Research.

The foundation would award grants, loans and contracts to universities, companies and organizations to conduct health and scientific research that would come from the $7.5 billion in bond money.

That research could include biomedical research, which would include finding cures for high-mortality diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS), heart disease, stroke and HIV/AIDS, among other illnesses.

Supporters of the bill told The Center Square on Monday that the bill is a better way of ensuring taxpayer-funded health and science research funding than Proposition 38, which is on the November 2026 ballot and authorizes $8.4 billion of bonds to pay for immunology and immunotherapy research.

“In our view, that’s a better alternative,” David Panush, co-chair of the No on Prop. 38 campaign, told The Center Square on Monday. “There’s only so much money that you can invest in these kinds of things, and we don’t believe that it’s possible to do both. That would be over a billion dollars in debt service.”

The bond money for the March 2028 measure can be used to do research on public health, disease prevention, promoting healthy or safe behaviors, wildfire prevention, behavioral health, climate change, ocean and sea level rise, agriculture and water, seismic hazards, emerging technology, and the safety of medicine, medical devices, food and cosmetics, according to the bill analysis.

The money would have to be granted to researchers in California, and the foundation that awards the taxpayer funding would have to prioritize health and scientific issues that have been the subject of federal budget cuts and that create jobs in California. The state’s public university systems, the University of California and the California State University, would both get funding from this bond money. The UC would get $250 million, while the CSU would get $750 million.

Representatives from both university systems did not respond to The Center Square on Monday.

“It’s a terrible use of our bond authority,” Wayne Winegarden, an economist for Pasadena-based Pacific Research Institute, told The Center Square. “It’s a constant excuse that we don’t know what’s going to happen with federal money, so we have to backfill it with more state money. Especially with March 2028, who knows what’s going to be happening at that point?”

Wiener did not respond to The Center Square's request for an interview. In comments he wrote that were included in the legislative analysis of the bill, Wiener said billions of dollars of federal budget cuts to taxpayer-funded health and science programs put California in what he called a “dire” situation.

“Over the past year we have seen an incredible politicization of what was once considered bipartisan and vital research,” Wiener wrote. “Without this investment from the state, Californians and the world will lose out on critical, life-saving discoveries that will treat diseases, uplift public health, and address climate change. For a healthy, prosperous future for all Californians, this bill is a critical step.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law on Sept. 30 – the last bill he signed into law as governor of California. His office did not respond to The Center Square's request for an interview.