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• Same Governor, Different Goals
• Assemblymember Evans Sets the Record Straight
• Governor Proposes More Raids of Public Education Dollars
• Governor’s Actions Lead To Unnecessary and Premature Crisis
• Governor Scapegoats Dedicated Homecare Providers
• Patient Protest Marks First Cuts To Medi-Cal
• Oakland’s modest model of fairness

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Same Governor, Different Goals

By Cynthia Craft
Health Access California

As July 1st hits, a budget fix for California is apparently nowhere in sight. So how is this year different from years past?

Besides the alarming $24 billion hole in California's budget, we seem to have a different Governor. As recently as 2007-08, Gov. Schwarzenegger was actively advocating for health reform. Now he proposes to endanger the intergrity of the very programs on which health reform would be built.

The "Year of Reform" governor sought to expand and improve Medi-Cal. Today, our public health programs seem to be a prime place he goes to find "savings" in the state budget. While, on one hand, he's demanding big-picture solutions from legislative leaders, with the other hand he's passing around a new package of proposals that could, in effect, make Medi-Cal coverage less accessible.

Under the guise of modernizing the system and "bringing California into the 21st Century," Schwarzenegger would eliminate 27,000 county workers who currently help Medi-Cal recipients with complex enrollment procedures. He calls person-to-person interaction an "antiquated process...relying on slow and time-consuming face-to-face and mail-in processes that are only available between 9-5 and lack uniformity across counties."

Moving the process online, he says, will be "taking advantage of the latest technologies to allow people to apply and enroll in state programs faster and with fewer hassles -- all while reducing costs." It almost sounds too good to be true.

Advocacy groups like the Western Center on Law & Poverty find this alarming.

People need the help of those county workers -- their face-to-face interaction, and step-by-step assistance -- to successfully enroll in Medi-Cal or determine their eligibility. Medi-Cal is an exceedingly complex program.

Assemblymember Evans Sets the Record Straight

By Assemblymember Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa),
Chair of the Budget Conference Committee
(Originally posted on Evans’ budget blog at http://californiabudget.blogspot.com/)

Today, the governor held a press conference that reminded me of the phrase “everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts.”

As was expected, the governor pointed the finger at the Legislature to explain why we do not have a budget revision in place today. But this criticism, among other things he said, is simply a manipulation of the facts. So, let me set the record straight. Consider these examples:

• The Legislature only had endless hearings and no negotiations – The Conference Committee had public hearings to give the public a say in the public’s budget. And, we have had negotiations. But the governor has consistently used Republican legislators to blow up the agreements we have made.

• The Legislature is protecting special interests – This is true only if one defines special interests to be children, the elderly, the disabled, college students from working families, and state park lovers. Conference Committee protected the people of California from their own governor. That is why we rejected the governor’s proposals to eliminate healthcare for a million children, to eliminate welfare to work programs while unemployment in teeters over 11%, to eliminate CalGrants, and to close 220 state parks.

• The Legislature must look at reforming state pensions, CalWORKS, and in-home care - Here we go again. Remember the multi-million dollar 2005 special election no one but the governor wanted? Every single one of the so-called “reform” initiatives written by the governor were resoundingly rejected by the voters. The governor is bringing them back and doesn’t want public scrutiny of the sweeping policy changes he wants as part of a budget agreement.

Governor Proposes More Raids of Public Education Dollars

In the wake of the Governor’s failure to sign a budget that would make the state solvent in terms of cash flow, the Governor has made a number of proposals to find money. One of these proposals is to suspend Proposition 98, the minimum funding law designed to provide funding protections for our schools.

This proposal triggered a quick response from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell on Wednesday.

“The Governor continues to attempt to balance the budget on the backs of our students and our schools. Suspending Proposition 98 is a shortsighted approach that drops school funding into financial quicksand and will harm a generation of students.

“Our schools already have absorbed nearly $12 billion in cuts from a budget passed just months ago. As a result, schools have had to cut summer school; class sizes are going up; teachers and support staff have been laid off; and art, music, and sports programs are being eliminated. The list of tragic consequences of our budget crisis continues to grow.

“California needs a well-educated, critically thinking, and problem-solving workforce in order to improve and grow California’s economy. Public education is the key to unlocking the potential for success that our students possess. It is wrong-headed to cut education when we desperately need to nurture and support the students in our schools today who will be the backbone of our economy in just a few short years.

“Proposition 98 was passed by the voters of California to provide a floor of funding for our schools. Suspending it simply pulls the rug the out from under our students and the future of our state."
In addition to Mr. O’Connell, one of his potential replacements, Assemblymember Tom Torlakson who was a long-time teacher also spoke out strongly against the proposal.

Governor’s Actions Lead To Unnecessary and Premature Crisis

by David M. Greenwald
Editor
California Progress Report

An Op-Ed by the San Jose Mercury news on Wednesday blasted Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger for needlessly pushing the state over the edge. Today, Controller John Chiang will begin handing out IOUs to state workers and to vendors of the state.

As Controller John Chiang said last week:

“We start a fiscal year with a massively unbalanced spending plan and a cash shortfall not seen since the Great Depression. The State’s $2.8 billion cash shortage in July grows to $6.5 billion in September, and after that we see a double-digit freefall. Unfortunately, the State’s inability to balance its checkbook will now mean short-changing taxpayers, local governments and small businesses.”

That reality hit home on Tuesday night when the state legislature and Governor could not agree on a stopgap fix for the budget.
Writes the San Jose Mercury News:

“In rejecting a stopgap fix for the budget on Tuesday, the governor and GOP leaders have accelerated a budget meltdown that pushes the state deeper into debt. Its already huge deficit immediately will grow and its credit rating will fall farther. (How much lower can it go?) Animosity between Democrats and Republicans will deepen, and the potential budget solutions, already painful, will become even less acceptable. Happy Fiscal New Year, Californians. Put away your confetti and grab some tomatoes for your elected representatives. They have once again failed you.

At the center of the mess is Schwarzenegger. He can cast himself as a pragmatist, but he proved to be inflexible and ineffectual in the latest negotiations. His biggest blunder was to insist that the entire $24 billion deficit be fixed by June 30, even though a bipartisan Assembly and Senate Democrats had a solution to buy time.”

Governor Scapegoats Dedicated Homecare Providers

by Doug Moore
Executive Director
United Domestic Workers of America

Doug Moore, executive director, UDW Homecare Providers Union issued the following statement in response to the Governor’s Budget proposals:

It is unfortunate that the governor continues to use thousands of dedicated homecare providers and the people they serve as scapegoats in his effort to slash safety net programs. Contrary to what he claims, there is no real proof of “massive” fraud in the In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program. Furthermore, it is outrageous to suggest that people making little more than minimum wage should have to pay for their own background checks and fingerprinting when no other government employees are required to do so.

UDW believes that any fraud in IHSS should be eliminated. We have sponsored and endorsed a number of bills to curb fraud and abuse; currently we are sponsoring AB 378 by Assembly Member Paul Cook which would create training standards in the program. Yet despite their talk about curbing fraud, the governor and Republican legislators oppose our bill. Apparently, they’re more interested in scoring political points than in really doing something to improve the program.

Doug Moore is executive director of the 65,000-member UDW Homecare Providers Union, California's only union made up entirely of homecare workers.