US companies seem on the cusp of postponing state ballot measures

State voting measures do not receive the same attention as the big congressional races of this year, but they entail big expenses for companies hoping to win voters.

And US companies are about to win the victory on some issues of 2018, according to analysts.

In Montana, the tobacco giant Altria Group Inc.

MO + 1.51%

disbursed $ 17 million to fight a vote initiative to fund a Medicaid expansion through additional taxes on tobacco products.

In California, the DaVita dialysis provider Inc.

DVA, + 1.34%

has spent $ 67 million to combat Proposition 8, which proposes limits on the amount of fees charged by clinics for dialysis, an essential treatment for people with kidney disease. Still in the Golden State, investment firm Blackstone Group LP

BX, + 1.90%

fund a response to proposal 10, which would give communities more power to control rents.

Altria's spending in Montana is unprecedented, according to Denise Roth Barber, executive director of the National Institute of Monetary Policy, a non-partisan organization based in Helena, Montana, which follows campaign funding. "This is the most that Altria has spent fighting a vote by ballot," she said. While Marlboro's parent company had spent $ 18 million on another tax move in Colorado two years ago, $ 7 million of that money has been repaid, possibly because it has bought up time was not actually used, according to Roth Barber.

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Voting in Montana would result in an additional tax of $ 2 per pack on cigarettes, as well as new taxes on electronic cigarettes. Tobacco companies would likely see their sales decline and opponents of the measure criticized the idea behind "sin taxes" that attempt to change people's behavior.

Proponents of this measure spent only $ 5 million, according to Roth Barber. Some analysts predict that the considerable advantage of the opposition on this front will be victory. "We expect the Montanais to reject a permanent expansion of Medicaid due to a well-funded opposition campaign led by the tobacco industry, but we believe that the Montana legislature will fund this." expansion in 2019, "said Height Securities analysts recently.

In California, a group seeking to defeat Proposition 8, called "Patients and Caregivers to Protect Dialysis Patients", could potentially raise more money than any other American group targeting an election measure, Roth said Barber. It has attracted $ 111 million, including $ 67 million from DaVita, while supporters have raised only about $ 20 million, according to Daniel G. Newman, president of MapLight, a Berkeley-based non-profit organization. California, which aims to reveal the income of money. role in politics.

"On the basis of this spending gap, we continue to believe that Proposal 8 will face a very low pass rate of 25% by California voters on November 6," said a senior Securities analyst in a recent note. . Supporters point out that the measure would prevent dialysis providers from overloading, while opponents say it would reduce access to care.

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In the battle around California's Prop 10, supporters raised about $ 26 million, while opponents – mostly developers and homeowners – drew $ 75 million, said Newman of MapLight. According to a report from MapLight and the nonprofit publication Capital & Main, one of the contributors to this $ 75 million war chest is a Blackstone holding company and four of its investment funds. , these entities providing more than $ 5.6 million. Blackstone's contributions come from investor capital reserves, which include dozens of state and local pension systems, the report said.

"It's one thing if Blackstone uses its own profits to do it, but here they actually use retiree equity," Newman told MarketWatch.

Supporters insist that this measure would restore the power of localities to impose equitable limits on the amount of rents that can be paid to homeowners, while critics say it would worsen the state housing crisis and leave bureaucrats with the responsibility of these dwellings.