Voters would decide on a $7.5-billion science bond to fund state research if Newsom approves

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Set us as preferred California voters in 2028 could decide whether to establish a $7.5-billion state scientific research arm — similar to the National Institutes of Health — to backfill threatened funding cuts by the Trump administration that could affect groundbreaking research at the University of California and elsewhere in the state.The new state fund would blunt potential federal research funding cuts that “threaten to bulldoze the nation’s top scientific institutions, disrupting innovations critical to California’s future,” according to the office of state Sen.

Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who wrote the legislation to put the proposal before voters.UC said at least $1 billion in federal research dollars is currently endangered by cuts.The Legislature on Monday approved and sent to Gov.Gavin Newsom a March 2028 ballot measure that would authorize bonds to create the California Foundation for Science and Health Research.If signed by Newsom and passed by voters, the $7.5 billion in bonds would fund California scientific and medical research into diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s and ALS, as well as on ways to reduce wildfire risk and fight pandemics and climate change.The legislation was sponsored by the Union of American Physicians and the University of California.

United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents some 60,000 UC academic workers, also sponsored the plan.“The federal government may retreat from its responsibilities, but our state will not retreat with it,” UAW 4811 president Rafael Jaime said during a recent news conference.

“This is a meaningful step toward the investment working families need — investment that delivers the education and research that drives our economy and helps train the next generation.”The legislation, Senate Bill 895, marks a pullback from what was first...