Yousa People Gonna Die? - The Proposed FY 2010-11 CA Budget
"Yousa People Gonna Die?!" - Jar Jar Binks
Thanks Jar Jar, you said it best. On Friday, January 8th, Governor-Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office released the year’s first draft budget proposal for the State of California. It hurts. I haven't seen any other newspaper really spell it out like this, but here it is for you:
The budget plan bleeds low-income children, the poor, homeless, elderly and disabled in order to help close a $20 billion deficit. It recommends stripping $2.9 billion from social service programs, about a third of all cuts.
Schwarzenegger is also demanding the Fed pony up $6 billion to California. If this does not happen, he says he will pull the "trigger" and wipe out entire programs.
And the Health and Human Services Cuts are...
Healthy Families
What it is: Health insurance for poor kids from families between 100-250% of the federal poverty level.
First Round of Cuts: Eligibility decreases to 200% of poverty level. No more vision coverage, and premiums increase. 200,000 kids lose medical insurance in July.
Pulling the Trigger: Blam. Elimination of program. 900,000 children lose medical coverage.
CalWorks
What it is: Helps unemployed people go back to full-time work, including providing day care to single moms, inc. some domestic violence counseling and mental health counseling.
First Round of Cuts: 16% cut to assistance checks, stricter compliance rules, disqualifications for being on the dole for over 48 out of 60 months.
Pulling the Trigger: Blam. Terminated. California would become the only state no longer a part of transforming the national welfare model into a model aimed at moving the unemployed into full employment. State support would end for 165,000 families with 318,000 children in Los Angeles County.
Medi-Cal
What it is: California's version of Medicaid. Health care for the poor.
First Round of Cuts: Limits on services and utilization controls, increase co-pay and premium requirements, and other programmatic changes. Aside from some exceptions such as pregnancy, all new legal immigrants who have resided in the United States for less than five years will lose full-scope Medi-Cal by March 1, 2010.
Pulling the Trigger: The trigger mechanism cut reduces Medi-Cal eligibility to the minimum required by Federal law. That's 450,000 people suddenly without medical care. It also eliminates most remaining optional benefits, including durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and other supplies. Only the dirt poorest of Californians get public medical care. Oh, and people need feeding tubes and catheters and stuff to live, right?
In-Home Supportive Services
What it is: Care workers go to the homes of the elderly, disabled, and blind to help them function. IHSS keeps them out of nursing homes and from, you know, dying.
First Round of Cuts: Cuts 90% of the 400,000 people receiving IHSS, leaving only the lowest functioning people. Care workers' salaries are reduced to minimum wage.
Pulling the Trigger: Goodbye, IHSS! 350,000 in-home care workers would be suddenly unemployed (some say this would make unemployment 14%.) Suddenly there's 400,000 frail and disabled people with no one to take care of them. In Los Angeles County, 135,000 IHSS care workers provide services to 174,000 seniors, blind and disabled people who would lose coverage.
California First Five
What it is: Currently funded by a 50 cent cigarette tax, First 5 helps California kids under 5 and their families--especially important for kids with developmental issues.
First Round of Cuts: Schwarzenegger will ask voters to cut $550 million from First Five and move the money so the State doesn't have to pay for basic Social Service and Developmental Service programs. Over half of the funding for California First Five programs would be lost.
Pulling the Trigger: The ballot will likely, using innocuous language like "savings" and "redirection," encourage voters to empty the entire First 5 piggy bank. Whoops!
Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63):
What it is: MHSA is an existing 1% a tax on millionaires. Money goes to develop innovative mental health programs to supplement basic mental health services. Unfortunately, over the past four years politicians have used MHSA's existence as an excuse to cut from basic mental health programs when it's supposed to be a supplement, not a replacement (says so in the law.)
First Round of Cuts: The governor will cut $452.3 million from basic mental health and then ask voters to cut money from MHSA and move the money over to basic services. Either way it's a huge cut to mental health.
Pulling the Trigger: The governor will add an additional $847 million cut to the ballot. If voters approve this cut MHSA's funds will be virtually wiped out--a fact no one in the media seems to want to mention. Not only will it be a huge loss to mental health services and innovation, because of MHSA, basic mental health has been unfairly cut for years. To top it off, a ton of manpower was used to implement MHSA programs, and it would suddenly all be for nothing. (All those meetings I went to...)
While Gov. Schwarzenegger is holding the weakest and poorest and most helpless Californians hostage right now, he may likely have his bluff called. On Tuesday, the Legislative Analyst's office warned that the likelihood that the Federal Government will accede to California's requests for money is "almost non-existent."
In response to the proposed $2 billion in cuts to Los Angeles County, yesterday, Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka said 2010-11 will "probably be the worst year for county services in recent history." County officials had prepared a report detailing the impact of cuts on Los Angeles, but refused to release it to the public so as not to "cause too much alarm in the community."
tl;dr: The cuts are really bad. People are literally going to die. It's a delicate subject because it's too scary.
Thanks Jar Jar, you said it best. On Friday, January 8th, Governor-Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office released the year’s first draft budget proposal for the State of California. It hurts. I haven't seen any other newspaper really spell it out like this, but here it is for you:
The budget plan bleeds low-income children, the poor, homeless, elderly and disabled in order to help close a $20 billion deficit. It recommends stripping $2.9 billion from social service programs, about a third of all cuts.
Schwarzenegger is also demanding the Fed pony up $6 billion to California. If this does not happen, he says he will pull the "trigger" and wipe out entire programs.
And the Health and Human Services Cuts are...
Healthy Families
What it is: Health insurance for poor kids from families between 100-250% of the federal poverty level.
First Round of Cuts: Eligibility decreases to 200% of poverty level. No more vision coverage, and premiums increase. 200,000 kids lose medical insurance in July.
Pulling the Trigger: Blam. Elimination of program. 900,000 children lose medical coverage.
CalWorks
What it is: Helps unemployed people go back to full-time work, including providing day care to single moms, inc. some domestic violence counseling and mental health counseling.
First Round of Cuts: 16% cut to assistance checks, stricter compliance rules, disqualifications for being on the dole for over 48 out of 60 months.
Pulling the Trigger: Blam. Terminated. California would become the only state no longer a part of transforming the national welfare model into a model aimed at moving the unemployed into full employment. State support would end for 165,000 families with 318,000 children in Los Angeles County.
Medi-Cal
What it is: California's version of Medicaid. Health care for the poor.
First Round of Cuts: Limits on services and utilization controls, increase co-pay and premium requirements, and other programmatic changes. Aside from some exceptions such as pregnancy, all new legal immigrants who have resided in the United States for less than five years will lose full-scope Medi-Cal by March 1, 2010.
Pulling the Trigger: The trigger mechanism cut reduces Medi-Cal eligibility to the minimum required by Federal law. That's 450,000 people suddenly without medical care. It also eliminates most remaining optional benefits, including durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and other supplies. Only the dirt poorest of Californians get public medical care. Oh, and people need feeding tubes and catheters and stuff to live, right?
In-Home Supportive Services
What it is: Care workers go to the homes of the elderly, disabled, and blind to help them function. IHSS keeps them out of nursing homes and from, you know, dying.
First Round of Cuts: Cuts 90% of the 400,000 people receiving IHSS, leaving only the lowest functioning people. Care workers' salaries are reduced to minimum wage.
Pulling the Trigger: Goodbye, IHSS! 350,000 in-home care workers would be suddenly unemployed (some say this would make unemployment 14%.) Suddenly there's 400,000 frail and disabled people with no one to take care of them. In Los Angeles County, 135,000 IHSS care workers provide services to 174,000 seniors, blind and disabled people who would lose coverage.
California First Five
What it is: Currently funded by a 50 cent cigarette tax, First 5 helps California kids under 5 and their families--especially important for kids with developmental issues.
First Round of Cuts: Schwarzenegger will ask voters to cut $550 million from First Five and move the money so the State doesn't have to pay for basic Social Service and Developmental Service programs. Over half of the funding for California First Five programs would be lost.
Pulling the Trigger: The ballot will likely, using innocuous language like "savings" and "redirection," encourage voters to empty the entire First 5 piggy bank. Whoops!
Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63):
What it is: MHSA is an existing 1% a tax on millionaires. Money goes to develop innovative mental health programs to supplement basic mental health services. Unfortunately, over the past four years politicians have used MHSA's existence as an excuse to cut from basic mental health programs when it's supposed to be a supplement, not a replacement (says so in the law.)
First Round of Cuts: The governor will cut $452.3 million from basic mental health and then ask voters to cut money from MHSA and move the money over to basic services. Either way it's a huge cut to mental health.
Pulling the Trigger: The governor will add an additional $847 million cut to the ballot. If voters approve this cut MHSA's funds will be virtually wiped out--a fact no one in the media seems to want to mention. Not only will it be a huge loss to mental health services and innovation, because of MHSA, basic mental health has been unfairly cut for years. To top it off, a ton of manpower was used to implement MHSA programs, and it would suddenly all be for nothing. (All those meetings I went to...)
While Gov. Schwarzenegger is holding the weakest and poorest and most helpless Californians hostage right now, he may likely have his bluff called. On Tuesday, the Legislative Analyst's office warned that the likelihood that the Federal Government will accede to California's requests for money is "almost non-existent."
In response to the proposed $2 billion in cuts to Los Angeles County, yesterday, Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka said 2010-11 will "probably be the worst year for county services in recent history." County officials had prepared a report detailing the impact of cuts on Los Angeles, but refused to release it to the public so as not to "cause too much alarm in the community."
tl;dr: The cuts are really bad. People are literally going to die. It's a delicate subject because it's too scary.