Gary K. Michelson

Right now, there appears to be only one research facility in the state that meets these criteria, the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, based in the UCLA Research Park, and that's not all.

[whooshing] The co-founder of this institute is billionaire Gary K. Michelson, who's [mouse clicking] also the primary backer of Prop 38.

The measure skeptics wonder whether it's fair to commit so much money to just one institute in a state like California that has so many world-class medical researchers.

[whooshing] In an emailed response to CalMatters, a spokesperson for Yes On 38 wrote, "We wrote the measure to ensure a highly qualified nonprofit could receive funding.

and immunotherapy at UCLA.

The billionaire that co-founded that institute, Gary Michelson, has also given a whole lot of money to this initiative to try and move it forward.

So the critics on this one would really say that when it comes to research, that there should be competitive bidding, and the people that are doing the best research should be the ones to get those funds, as opposed to kind of almost earmarking it.

I mean, the way it's been written is quite tricky.

You know, somewhat Pollyannishly, perhaps, I think that if we did have something like that, then perhaps we could reduce some of the vitriol in society, because I just don't see this fight about Allegations of voting fraud dying anytime soon, despite the wonderful research that Mike's doing.

All right, we're talking about the voter ID requirement, which is Proposition 39 on your California ballot.

Next is the highest profile of all, the so-called billionaire's tax, Proposition 40.

It's a one-time tax of assets, 5% one-time asset tax for those with worth of a billion dollars or more.

There is sort of an interesting story about how this came on the ballot in the first place, right? Can you actually talk about why voters are even being asked, um, to fund immunotherapy in this year's election?

Prop 38 was the brainchild of a philanthropist named Gary Michelson.

He raised the money to collect the signatures and put Prop 38 on the ballot.

Something that's really interesting about the initiative is how it's worded.

That same institution would also be the touchpoint for all the research, so the, the other half of the funding that would get distributed in competitive grants would all be sort of centered at UCLA.

So it's safe to say that this is on the ballot because a very wealthy philanthropist put it there as a way to finance a research institution focused on his interest, which is immunology and immunotherapy.

Okay, April, so Prop 38 was put on the ballot by this wealthy philanthropist, Gary Michelson, and it's written in this way that would, it sounds like, directly benefit a research institute at UCLA that he's helping to fund.

So clearly he has some skin in the game here.