Governor's Budget Proposals Hit Hard on Health and Human Services
The Governor's recently released May Revise General Fund proposals include more drastic cuts to Medi-Cal, SSI/SSP, IHSS, Development Disability services, and the elimination of entire programs serving children, elders and the disabled. Included among the proposals to address a $24.3 billion deficit for FY 09-10 are:

- IHSS: Reduce funding for In Home Supportive Services recipients by restricting services only to those recipients with a Functional Index score of 4.0 and above. According to recent estimates, about 36,000 consumers out of 462,000 people would continue to receive IHSS services, because all of the domestic and housekeeping activities that allow people to remain at home would be eliminated. Each recipient is given an FI ranking in each of 11 activities of daily living (ADLs). A weighted average of these rankings is calculated to determine the FI score.
Rank 4: Can perform a function, but only with substantial human assistance.
Rank 5: Cannot perform the function, with or without human assistance.
Rank 6: Paramedical Services Needed

- Eliminate funding for the Caregiver Resource Centers, which provides free and low cost support services to caregivers and an entry point to services in every county in California.

- Eliminate Adult Day Health Care, sending thousands of consumers to nursing homes

- Eliminate all state funding for Community Care Licensing - the "oversight" and licensing agency for over
86,000 entities, serving over 1,446,000 consumers, including 7,879 residential care facilities for the elderly, with 168,000+ residents

- Eliminate the Healthy Families Program, which provides health care for over 900,000 California children

- Eliminate the Multi Purpose Senior Services (MSSP) program and Community Based Services Programs

The additional proposals would severely reduce or eliminate funding for mental health, developmental disability services, education, state parks, Cal grants, AIDS services, CALWORKS and several state-only Medi-Cal programs - and these are only a portion of the proposed cuts (summaries of the proposed cuts are available in pdf format at www.canhr.org under New Developments).

The Budget Conference Committee held a hearing on the proposed Health and Human Services cuts on May 27 and heard from numerous consumers and advocates. More hearings, not open for public comment, will be held over the next month, as the deadline for the budget is June 30. Meanwhile, state Controller John Chaing is calling on the legislators and the governor to finalize a budget agreement by June 15 to give him time to negotiate loans from Wall Street to cover the state's operating costs.

If the intent is to turn California into a third world country - this might work. As the Sacramento Bee recently noted in an editorial, the governor's proposed cuts "would leave California with the least support of its poor of any state in the nation and probably any government in the developed world."

How can we provide services to the poorest of the poor; to our disabled citizens; to our elders who need care at home - without raising taxes? How can we even pretend to be a civilized state if we are not willing to be our "brothers and sisters keepers?"

While many legislators are aware of the devastating effect these cuts will have on real people, others of them have no idea and will resist increasing taxes until death. It is important to let your voice be heard.

Written comments can be submitted to your legislator and to the Chairs of the respective Senate and Assembly Committees:

Senator Denise Ducheny, Chair
Senate Budget Committee
State Capitol, Room 5019
Sacramento, CA 95814
Assemblymember Noreen Evans, Chair
Assembly Budget Committee
State Capitol, Room 6026
Sacramento, CA 95814

For more information on the budget proposals and to find out how to contact your legislators, see CANHR's web site at www.canhr.org or call the CANHR office.