SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D. announced that an initiative became eligible for the November 5 General Election ballot on May 21.

In order to become eligible for the ballot, the initiative needed 546,651 valid petition signatures, which is equal to five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the November 2022 General Election.

A measure can become eligible via random sampling of petition signatures if the sampling projects that the number of valid signatures is greater than 110 percent of the required number. The initiative needed at least 601,317 projected valid signatures to become eligible by random sampling, and it has exceeded that threshold today.

On June 27, the Secretary of State will certify the initiative as qualified for the November 5 General Election ballot, unless it is withdrawn by the proponent prior to certification pursuant to Elections Code section 9604(b).

The Attorney General's official title and summary of the measure is as follows:

Restricts spending by health care providers meeting specified criteria. Initiative statute. Requires certain health care providers to spend 98% of revenues from the federal discount prescription drug program on direct patient care. Applies only to health care providers that: spent over $100,000,000 in any ten-year period on anything other than direct patient care; and operated multifamily housing with over 500 high-severity health and safety violations. Penalizes noncompliance by revoking health care licenses and tax-exempt status. Permanently authorizes state to negotiate Medi-Cal drug prices on statewide basis. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: Increased costs to state government, potentially up to the millions of dollars annually, to review entities’ compliance with the measure and enforce the measure’s provisions. These costs would be paid for by fees created under the measure. Uncertain fiscal impacts to state and local government health programs, depending on how the affected entities respond to the measure’s requirements. (23-0021A1.)

The Secretary of State’s tracking number for this measure is 1963 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 23-0021A1.

The proponent of the measure is Thomas Bannon. They can be reached c/o Kurt R. Oneto, Nielsen Merksamer LLP, at (916) 446-6752 and [email protected]. The address for Nielsen Merksamer LLP is 1415 L Street, Suite 1200, Sacramento, CA 95814.

For more information about how an initiative qualifies for the ballot in California, visit https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/how-qualify-initiative.