Newsom defends narrow passage of Prop. 1: ‘If there’s ever been a unity agenda, it’s this.’

One day after declaring victory in the closely contested Proposition 1 ballot measure race, California Gov. Gavin Newsom came to Los Angeles to celebrate.

Prop. 1 redirects the majority of California Mental Health Services Act funding from the counties to the state, and will see billions spent on the construction of mental health facilities and housing, with an aim toward getting the chronically homeless off the street.

On-hand for the celebration were a variety of state and local politicians, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna and Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks.

The governor himself took center stage for the celebratory press conference.

“If there’s ever been a unity agenda, it’s this. If there’s ever been another coalition that is more diverse and broad, I don’t know of it,” Newsom said Thursday.

Despite that broad coalition, Prop. 1 passed by only a narrow margin, 50.2% to 49.8%.

Opponents of the measure included many Republican lawmakers and conservative-leaning county boards of supervisors, but also disability rights activists and some mental health groups. Critics warned that the measure will lead to a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach to mental health care in the state and leave several crucial community behavioral health outreach programs defunded, and also that it could provide the infrastructure for involuntary detentions of the mentally ill.

Newsom acknowledged that the last couple weeks, as the ballot measure squeaked by with a tiny lead, were difficult, and he conceded that not everyone was a fan of the approach.

“Change has its enemies, change is tough, change is hard,” Newsom said.

The hardest part, the governor added, is yet to come, as now comes the work of implementing those changes.

“I say this all the time, ‘Program passing is not problem-solving,’” Newsom said.

The governor spoke of how bringing Proposition 1 to the voters was a five-year process that began shortly after he first was elected.

But support for the measure came from powerful state players and unions, including SEIU California and the California Hospital Association. The Yes on 1 campaign raised more than $14 million, while the opposing campaign raised just $1,000.

Critics of the measure, such as supervisory boards in conservative counties across the state, say the measure defunds local services that counties are already providing to go toward funding a one-size fits all approach, and focuses too much on the most extreme cases. Disability rights advocates and some mental health groups also said that the “Treatment not Tents” approach may subject people with mental health issues into to involuntary detentions.

He added that for critics of the ballot measure, “What I would say about Proposition 1 is that you will be proud.”

Newsom said that Prop. 1 isn’t like other bonds; it won’t take years to get the money out there to make a difference.

“We’re going to start putting out notices for funding availability in just a matter of months,” he said.

The news conference also came on the heels of the governor announcing that he has reached an agreement with Democratic legislative leaders to knock as much as $18 billion off of the state’s towering deficit, which the Legislative Analyst’s Office says could be as high as $73 billion.

The governor spoke only briefly on the budget, though, saying “we’re going to be moving very quickly to address those shortfalls in a matter of weeks.”