Returns indicate initiatives will fail

Overshadowed by the gubernatorial recall campaign, two ballot initiatives in California apparently were defeated Tuesday, according to partial returns.

Proposition 53 would have set aside up to 3 percent of the state’s main pool of taxes to modernize roads, bridges and other public structures. Proposition 54 would have stopped the state from collecting and using most racial and ethnic data.

Proponents of both measures said they were lost in the hubbub over the governor’s recall.

“People naturally vote no on a proposition if they don’t understand it or have any question about it,” said Assemblyman Keith Richman, a Northridge Republican, co-author of Proposition 53.

Supporters of that measure, including business groups and construction companies that could have benefited from an increase in building, argued that voters needed to act because the Legislature had failed to invest enough to ward off deterioration of basic government structures and to keep pace with California’s swelling population.

Opponents argued that the mandates of Proposition 53 would divert money from schools and reduce the Legislature’s flexibility as it tries to manage state finances.

Proposition 54 generated plenty of controversy in recent weeks but was upstaged by the recall as well.

Proposition 54 would have prohibited the state and other public entities — including local governments, colleges and universities — from classifying individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity, color or national origin.

It had several exemptions that would have allowed the continued collection of data to comply with federal law, to establish or maintain eligibility for federal programs, and for certain law enforcement and medical research purposes.

Opponents argued that the measure — by suppressing information about race and ethnicity — would undermine the state’s hard-fought school reforms, make diseases tougher to track and treat, and hurt anti-discrimination efforts.

These critics, from civil rights activists to educators to public health researchers, said the goal of a colorblind society could not be achieved merely by removing information about race and ethnicity from public records, or by keeping the state from using it.