Republicans in the state Senate have rolled out their health care reform proposal, and it includes a final swipe at the commission once led by actor/director Rob Reiner: abolish the commission, and use the money to fund an expansion of health care for kids.

Senate GOP leaders outlined the proposal in a news conference at the Capitol this morning. Unlike the plan from Governor Schwarzenegger, it does not promise to cover everyone who is uninsured; rather, Republicans peg the number of folks who will be newly insured under their proposal at about 2 million.

It does not include any mandates on either individuals or businesses, and would offer tax credits and other incentives for employers who offer coverage (much more on the plan tomorrow morning on The California Report).

But one of the more politically intriguing elements to the plan is the idea to “reallocate” money from the Proposition 10 tobacco tax approved by voters in 1998. The estimated $580 million that tax brings in would no longer go to fund the California Children & Families Commission (commonly known as the “First 5″ commission… for its focus on programs designed to impact the first five years of a child’s life).

Every health care reform plan now on the table in Sacramento proposes ways to more fully cover the needs of children. But this one seems to be a ‘two-fer’ for legislative Republicans, as it takes direct aim at an agency they’ve been criticizing for the past year.

“We believe these funds have been misused,” said Sen. Dave Cox (R-Sacramento). Cox was one of the leading critics of the First 5 Commission when, then under the direction of Reiner, it spent millions of dollars on a PR campaign for universal preschool at the same time Reiner was mounting a political ballot initiative campaign on the same subject.

A state audit of the commission last fall called some of the payments by the Reiner-led agency “questionable and inappropriate.” Reiner resigned as chairman of the First 5 Commission last spring.

Because it was established by voters, any plan to abolish the First 5 Commission would have to be placed on the ballot. That means the money for kids’ health care couldn’t be available before late 2008.