Actor-director to head child development panel

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SACRAMENTO -- Actor-director Rob Reiner, who orchestrated the successful campaign to raise cigarette taxes to fund programs for young children, is Gov. Gray Davis' pick to head a state commission guiding the new programs.

Davis is expected to announce the appointment this week, said a source close to the process who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Best known as "Meathead," from TV's "All in the Family" and as director of such hits as "When Harry Met Sally," Reiner became an advocate for young children some years ago after becoming convinced that society was neglecting their first three years.

Although that is when 90 percent of brain growth occurs, setting patterns that can determine future success or failure, there has been little government spending in the area.

Reiner founded the nonprofit "I Am Your Child Campaign," directed a TV special and crisscrossed the country to speak for his cause. Then came Proposition 10, the ballot initiative raising cigarette taxes 50 cents a pack to address the funding problem.

Tobacco interests pumped millions into trying to sink Proposition 10, but Reiner put together an all-star team of endorsers that ranged from conservative ex-Congressman Michael Huffington, who served as campaign co-chair, to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Opponents criticized Proposition 10 as an unfair tax that would hit poor smokers hardest and create a new bureaucracy.

Reiner countered with arguments that the law guaranteed local control of the funds and that the people sitting on local commissions would be unpaid volunteers. He also pointed out that even if all else failed, the higher prices would discourage people, particularly teen-agers, from smoking.

The proposition passed by 57,000 votes out of more than 7.6 million ballots.