In an effort to persuade the Governor and legislators to limit the impact of budget cuts and revenue increases against people with disabilities.  As funding gets cut on all the essential services allowing people to live independently, potential elimination of cost of living increases with the addition of new tax increases, the budget cuts disproportionately affect those with disabilities.  The California SCDD has made its position clear in saying that in past fiscal years, it is always health and human services that sustains the disproportionate amount of cuts compared to other services.

Attached to this post are PDF copies of letters delivered to legislators and the Governor:

• California SCDD Letter to the Governor Opposing Proposed Budget Cuts for Fiscal Year 2008-2009
• California SCDD Letter to Top Legislators Opposing Proposed Budget Cuts
• California SCDD Proposed Budget Cuts Talking Points
• California SCDD Temporary Senate Roster - 2008-12-01

An Era of Embarrassment to Our State

By

MARY JANE BURKE

Marin County Superintendent of Schools

If challenging times call for superior leadership, then the Governor and Legislature of our state have failed meet that standard. After passing a state budget in September that was 85 days late, officials admitted “The budget is bad, but it is the best we could do.” The “lame-duck” Legislature the Governor called into session after the November election to address the crisis was unable to reach agreement. Now, the Governor has declared a Fiscal Emergency calling the Legislature into special session to again try to solve this critical issue. What has happened to a once proud state that had the best schools, world class colleges and universities, roads and highways that were the envy of the world, and a social services that cared for the needs of vulnerable citizens? How did we go from being first among the states in dollars spent per student to being 46th out of 50 states? The performance of our elected leaders in Sacramento is an embarrassment.

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California Budget Crisis

• Senate Budget Subcommittee Hearing Schedule
• Dec 10th – Health Issues (Medi-Cal, Regional Centers, etc)
• Dec 10th – Education Issues (including special education)
• Dec 11th – Human Services (IHSS, SSI/SSP, CalWORKS, etc)

SACRAMENTO (CDCAN) – As reported yesterday in a previous CDCAN Reports, an important budget subcommittee – the Senate Budget Subcommittee #3 on Health and Human Services, chaired by Sen. Alex Padilla (Democrat – Los Angeles) has scheduled two separate hearings this week to review proposals to close the over $11 billion budget deficit, with major permanent cuts and other changes to the current State budget that if approved – would go into effect March 1, 2009 or sooner:

• December 10th covering health related proposals including proposed mid-year budget reductions and changes to Medi-Cal and regional centers that were proposed by the Governor (on November 6th) and Legislative Democrats (November 25th). Any proposals for mid-year budget changes and reductions impacting these programs by Legislative Republican will also be reviewed.
• December 11th covering human service related proposals including mid-year budget reductions and changes to In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), SSI/SSP (Supplemental Security Income/State Supplemental Payment), CalWORKS, Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants that were proposed by the Governor (on November 6th), and Legislative Democrats (on November 25th). Like on December 10th, the subcommittee will also review any proposals for mid-year budget changes and reductions impacting these human service programs by Legislative Republicans.

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There was a memo posted earlier regarding these cuts, but this is the more verbose message from Marty Omoto of the California Disability Community Action Network.

SACRAMENTO (CDCAN) - Two bills containing proposals by legislative Democrats to cut spending by $8.1 billion and raise new revenues also by $8.1 billion over 18 months, were defeated in the Assembly, failing to win any Republican votes. Both Democrats and Republicans in both houses remain far apart on how to solve the budget deficit. A bill to cut spending in the Assembly was defeated 40 to 30, falling 14 votes short of approval. And a bill to raise taxes and other revenues, failed to win approval by 41 to 31, falling 15 votes short. Democratic Assemblymember Nicole Parra of Hanford, who is termed out, voted against both bills, defying Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said if the Assembly Republicans would have given their votes for revenues, Assembly Democrats had been prepared to consider other spending cuts and even the idea of a spending cap. She urged members to put ideology aside and to put their futures “at risk” .and warned that doing nothing and that California was headed for a economic “train wreck”.

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California State Budget

Yesterday the Legislature failed to pass the Democrat budget-balancing plan. This Democratic proposal called for $8.1 billion in cuts and $8.1 billion in new revenues over the next 19 months.

AB 7xxxx, the Spending Reduction Bill, would have made $600 million in cuts to SSI/SSP over the next two years by eliminating cost-of-living increases. This bill was defeated in the Assembly 40 to 30.

AB 6xxxx, the Revenue Bill, would have raised $8.1 billion in new revenues by reinstating the vehicle license fee to the level it was at when Governor Gray Davis was in office and temporarily freezing the state’s income tax tables to last year’s rates. This bill was rejected by the Assembly 41 to 31.

The Senate never took the bills up for a vote, but Senate Republicans are opposed to any increases in taxes.

The Legislative session officially ends on Sunday. On Monday, December 1, 2008 the newly elected and re-elected members of the Legislature will be sworn in. It is expected that the Governor will call the new Legislature into another special session.

The Sacramento Bee recently posted an opinion/editorial piece about the proposed state budget cuts and the special session called by Governor Schwarzenegger. Even though the budget has not been finalized, many fear services will be cut and taxes will be raised which will place undue burden on those most in need.

The story of one person (Dena Wright) within the piece says that she lived with her parents until they were no longer able to care for her, then she moved into a nursing home. The resident now lives independently with the help of a caregiver. Wright also noted that life in an institution is no life at all, rather an existence.

While in nursing homes, Wright says, she “only existed” and felt as if she were among people who “were just waiting to die.”

“I finally have my freedom and independence,” she told me in a written message.

The Governor’s proposed cuts would remove much of the funding allowing many people to live independently thus forcing them to return to nursing homes. The cuts of the budget would bring the SSI/SSP payments from $870 a month down to $830 on top of a rise in taxes and cut Medi-Cal which many rely on for health care. The cuts would also affect IHSS, which help those with disabilities and aged live independently; which would place more burden on counties throughout the state to make up the cost in order to have skilled people within the program.

Read the whole Sac Bee Op/Ed piece here: The Conversation: Proposed cuts would hit disabled too hard

Another related story was posted by the Press Enterprise also discussing cuts proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger.  That article can be found here: State in-home aid to disabled on cutting block

The California Foundation for Independent Living Centers (CFILC) is writing to alert you about our strong opposition to a number of the state budget cuts proposed for the current state budget Special Session. These proposed cuts would negatively affect seniors and people with disabilities.Take Action!

While the Governor may view the proposed reductions and the elimination of certain components of the Health and Human Services budget as a genuine effort to share the communal burdens of solving the current economic crisis, we believe that there needs to be a significantly stronger effort on the part of lawmakers, advocacy organizations, and the general public to convince the Republican Assembly and Senate Leadership and Members of their respective caucuses to agree to fairly balanced revenue increases to offset the draconian cuts in vital health and human services.Take Action!

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SACRAMENTO (CDCAN) - The Legislature’s budget analyst issued a report – and a warning – that the state budget deficit will grow to over $28 billion by the end of the 2009-2010 State Budget year if the State fails to take action on addressing increases to revenues and more spending cuts to programs. The figure is $4 billion higher than what the Governor’s Department of Finance projected the shortfall to be last week and underscores what the Governor last week said was a budget “state of emergency”. See later CDCAN Report today for more details.

The Assembly Budget Committee, chaired by outgoing Assembly member John Laird (Democrat – Santa Cruz) is scheduled to hold a hearing on the budget crisis, Friday, November 14th, at 1:30 PM at the State Capitol in Room 4202. The specific agenda for the hearing is not yet available and it is not certain at this point what the focus of the hearing will be. The State Senate has not yet scheduled any budget hearings at this point.
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SACRAMENTO (CDCAN) - Faced with a growing budget shortfall that is now over $11 billion and growing, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a wide range of major cuts, as expected, to health and human services that impact children and adults with disabilities, mental health needs, seniors, the blind, low income children and families, providers across California. The Governor also proposed big cuts to public education (K-12) that will have major impact on children with special needs, though he made no specific cuts to special education. The Governor estimated that the shortfall could grow another $13 billion during the 2009-2010 State Budget year that begins July 1, 2009 – meaning the total budget deficit that the State needs to bridge this year could be nearly $25 billion.

The proposals, which the Governor wants the Legislature to approve and go into effect this budget year (meaning in some cases as soon as December 1, 2008 and in other cases, March 1, 2009 or later) will be considered by the Legislature in special session. The Governor issued formally his proclamation calling the current Legislature – who have 100 of 120 members whose terms will expire on November 30th, back into a special or extraordinary session to consider his proposals. Newly elected or reelected legislators who were up for election November 4th, won’t take office until December 1.

The Governor wants these proposed cuts be approved by the current Legislature, would apply for this budget year which began July 1, 2008, but also extends the cuts for the entire budget year that begins July 1, 2009 and ends June 30, 2010.. In some cases – such as the proposed elimination of the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, which provides SSP level state funded grants to eligible legal immigrants who have disabilities, blind or seniors, would be permanent, as would the cuts proposed for IHSS and Medi-Cal..

Governor said his package of spending reductions for the special session total $4.5 billion or nearly half (about 49%) of what the projected current budget shortfall is. Proposed revenue increases account for about $4.7 billion or just over 51% of what the current project budget shortfall is.

The Governor will provide additional proposals – that will likely include more spending reductions, when he presents his proposed budget for the 2009-2010 State Budget year, on January 10, 2009.
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Colorado had an amendment proposition on its ballot yesterday to increase the sales tax by a fraction of a cent in order to help those in developmental centers move into community based living.  The tax was for two cents on every $10.00 spent and would have been used to help more than 12,000 individuals with disabilities.  The ballot measure was sadly rejected in a nearly 2 to 1 defeat with the final votes tallied at 61-38.

Opponents say the amendment was just proposed at the wrong time with the current economic standings of our country and it was poor timing for anything of the nature.

David Braddock, with the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities at the University of Colorado, told lawmakers last year that Colorado’s expenditures for the developmentally disabled were 73 percent below the national average.

The measure’s downfall means that the disabled community now must rely on the legislature to take action at a time when the state is grappling with falling revenues and budget shortfalls.

Read the whole article here:  Tax for developmentally disabled rejected

A second story by a blogger gives the failure rate of the amendment here: Liveblog: Colorado ballot amendment results

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