Following is a brief summary of the Governor’s proposed budget and its potential impact on health and social services.

The governor is proposing drastic cuts to the programs that our clients and guests depend on for their very survival. Programs affected include CalWORKs, In Home Support Services, SSI/SSP, CAPI (SSI program for immigrants), California Food Assistance Program, Healthy Families, Prop 63-funded mental health services, and Medi-Cal.

Two Types of Cuts
The Governor has proposed significant cuts affecting health and human services programs. Many of these cuts have been proposed to begin in March 2010. The Governor has also asked the legislature to approve “triggering” additional program cuts and revenue increases if the federal government gives California less than $7 billion in relief.

Overview of the spending reductions:
• Medi-Cal:
o Unspecified limits on services and increased cost sharing with benefit recipients (co-payments/premiums).
o Elimination of Medi-Cal services for certain immigrants (e.g. those living in the U.S. less than five years).
o Eliminating Adult Day Health benefits.
• Healthy Families:
o Limit eligibility to families with incomes less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. (Current threshold = 250% of poverty level. This change would leave 240,000 children without coverage.)
o Eliminate vision benefits for all Healthy Families participants
o Increase premiums and co-pays for the second year in a row.
• CalWORKs:
o Reduce grant level by 15.7%. This cut would reduce the maximum monthly grant for a family of three in high-cost counties from $694 to $585.
o Eliminate CalWORKs benefits for legal immigrants who have been in the US for less than five years.
• In Home Supportive Services (IHSS)
o Limit IHSS services to individuals with “functional index” scores of 4.0 and higher. This change would eliminate services for 87% of the IHSS caseload, reducing the number of recipients from 485,000 to 63,000.
o Cap the maximum amount up to which the state will share in the cost of wages and benefits for IHSS workers at the state’s minimum wage, currently $8.00 per hour . Currently, the state shares in combined wage and benefit payments of up to $12.10 per hour for IHSS workers.
• Reducing SSI/SSP grants for single individuals to the minimum level allowed by federal law. This would amount to a $15 per month reduction effective June 1, 2010, the fourth grant reduction for SSI/SSP in the past 12 months.
• Elimination of state-funded programs specifically for (legal) immigrants, including CAPI (SSI-like program for people ineligible for SSI due to immigrant status) and California Food Assistance Program (Food Stamp-like program for people ineligible for Food Stamps due to immigration status).
• Ballot proposals: transferring money for Prop 10 (First 5 program funding for young children) and Prop 63 (mental health funding) to the General Fund.

Triggered Expenditure Reductions, Revenue Options, Spending Shifts:
• Permanent elimination of CalWORKs, IHSS, and Healthy Families programs.
• Reduce Medi-Cal eligibility to the minimum allowed under current federal law and eliminate most remaining optional benefits.
• Eliminate funding for the Transitional Housing Placement for Foster Youth-Plus Program ($36 million).
• Delay last year’s corporate tax changes for 1 year.
• General Fund savings from an additional $873 million transfer from Prop 63 to General Fund.

Tax credits/Job Creation spending initiatives:
• Homebuyer tax credits of up to $10,000.
• Exemption from sales tax for “green-tech” manufacturing equipment.
• Borrow from Disability Insurance Fund to support training grants to employers and a $3,000 per job tax credit to employers for new employees retained for at least nine months.

Budget Reform Proposals for ballot:
• Majority vote budget.
• 2/3 vote for fee increases in certain circumstances.
• Granting Governor midyear expenditure reduction authority.
• Limiting use of one time funds for one time expenditures.
• Requiring Legislature to review performance of programs every 10 years.
• Give legislature extra 10 days to pass budget and prohibiting legislature from being paid for days during late-budget impasse.

Where does this information come from?

California Budget Project, “Governor’s Proposed Budget Includes Deep Cuts, Assumes More Federal Funds”. Available at: www.cbp.org/pdfs/2010/100108_Gov_Budget.pdf

California Legislative Analyst’s Office: “The 2010 Budget: Overview of The Governor’s Budget”. Available at http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/PubDetails.aspx?id=2160

Information compiled by Colleen Rivecca, Advocacy Coordinator, St. Anthony Foundation.

On January 6, 7, and 8, 2010, advocates in cities across California rallied to send Governor Schwarzenegger this message: “California’s budget should put low income families first!” Low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities were hit hard with budget cuts last year, and this year they are asking the Governor to invest in them with health and social services and opportunities for employment.

St. Anthony Foundation acts as the “hands below the safety net”. We are proud of the services that we provide to folks who have fallen through the cracks due to budget cuts and elimination of government-funded health and social service programs. But at St. Anthony’s, we also work hard to ensure that our government invests in society’s most vulnerable members so that, even if they may fall on hard times, they don’t have to hit rock bottom before assistance is available.

Our city and state budgets are not just financial documents; they are statements about our priorities and values. St. Anthony Foundation’s statement of values states that we promote the dignity and respect of all people, even those among us who have very little. We are working with advocates across California to ensure that our budget protects programs that help vulnerable community members to simply survive: programs like In Home Supportive Services, CalWORKs, Social Security Income, Medi-Cal, and Healthy Families.

As we analyze the Governor’s proposed budget, stay tuned for information about how to get involved in advocating for a budget that supports all Californians!

No matter your stance on the health care debates being held country-wide, one thing is certain: insurance is expensive and far too many people are going without necessary care.

When deciding between immediate needs of shelter and food, or paying utilities and transportation costs to work, or for kids back and forth to school, paying the extra expense of health care can fall to the wayside.  This is especially dangerous for families and individuals who are on the brink of making ends meet, when one accident, one illness can mean the difference between paying bills or going into default, having electricity cut or even being put on the streets.  In 2007, 62% of bankruptcies were due to medical bills, a 49% increase since 2001, according to the American Journal of Medicine.  In 1981 only 8% of bankruptcies were attributed to medical bills.

At St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic, we care for 3,500 low-income or homeless patients who rely on our preventative and critical care.  In the coming year we anticipate this number vastly increasing, as state funding for Medi-Cal was cut by $323 million, and the Healthy Families program has stopped enrolling eligible children.  More than 12,000 children in San Francisco alone (942,000 state-wide) rely on Healthy Families for their regular check-ups, for emergency care, and medication.  In September disenrollment of these children will begin.

No matter our political stances, I hope we can all appreciate the need for change.  A system that perpetuates costly acute emergency care and puts affordable preventative medical care out of reach does not serve the individual, the family or the community as a whole.

The Governor may have said his machete wielding twitter video was just a joke, but the budget he signed today makes very real, very deep cuts into services for those most in need.  Schwarzenegger signed an already brutal budget and added $656 million more in cuts.

“Schwarzenegger’s vetoes include $80 million from child welfare programs; $61 million in county funding to administer Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicare; $52 million from AIDS prevention; $50 million to Healthy Families, the low-cost health insurance program for poor children; and $6.2 million more from state parks,” Reported the Associated Press.

In the days, and months ahead we will see just how devastating these cuts are.  It is already estimated that the cuts to Social Security Income will cause nearly 50,000 San Franciscans who are already living in poverty to survive on even less.  Our low-income seniors and people with disabilities will have to figure out how to live on even less, and will have to choose between rent, food, medicine and other essentials.  Our community will see an even greater number of SSI recipients in our already overtaxed food line, free clothing distribution lines, food pantry lines and emergency shelter lines. With the additional cuts to Medi-Cal community clinics, including St. Anthony Foundation’s Free Medical Clinic, will certainly see an increased need for our services

Perhaps when the Governor sees the fall out of this budet, he will put the knife away, stop playing with his camcorder and make a little more time to focus on the citizens of California.

As St. Anthony Foundation’s Advocacy Coordinator, the California state budget has been weighing heavy on my mind. The budget proposals released at the end of May were frightening, and signaled the possibility of the absolute devastation of California’s publicly-funded safety net. I’ve been talking about the budget almost nonstop since the proposals became public. I’ve also been helping our St. Anthony Foundation family get up to speed with all the news and start speaking out in order to help prevent the cuts.

Last Thursday’s (June 11, 2009) news that the California Budget Conference Committee had rejected some of the proposals that would hurt low-income Californians was hopeful. It is important to take a moment to be grateful that the elimination of the CalWORKs and Healthy Families programs are off the table (for now), but it’s also important to make sure that this small victory does not lull us into complacency. I am encouraging our St. Anthony Foundation advocates to use last Thursday’s news as an opportunity to enjoy feelings of hope and inspiration and to get recharged for the next stretch of difficult advocacy work that lies before us.

St. Anthony Foundation will be participating in California Church Impact’s Most Urgent Witness Rally in Sacramento next Tuesday, June 16. This rally will be an opportunity for advocates from around California to converge at the state Capitol and urge our legislators and Governor not to make budget decisions that will hurt the very people who need the most help right now: uninsured kids, low-income seniors and disabled people, working moms receiving CalWORKs, Medi-cal recipients, families experiencing domestic violence, frail elderly who need in-home care, and people living with AIDS who need assistance with life-saving medication. If you can’t join us in Sacramento, please consider calling or emailing your legislator and the Governor and telling them about your budget priorities.

St. Anthony Foundation advocates for public policies that will promote nutrition and healthy eating for all, regardless of income.  We were very excited that two of the anti-hunger bills that we’ve supported for years were signed into law in 2008.

New Anti-Hunger Bills

AB 433 removes the asset test for Food  Stamp applicants.  This means that low-income families with savings or retirement accounts worth more than $2,000 will no longer be denied Food Stamps.  The passage of this bill is timely: since the bill was signed this fall, California’s unemployment rate has climbed steadlily.  AB 433 will help newly-unemployed families afford food without depleting their savings.

AB 2300 is an important step forward in helping reduce paperwork burdens on low-income families.  AB 2300 allows families who are already  enrolled in Medi-Cal (the state’s Medicaid program) to enroll their children (and maintain enrollment) in free school meals without additional paperwork.

More work ahead in 2009

During this economic downturn, a lot of political energy will be spent on figuring out how to stimulate the economy.  Economists of all stripes believe that increasing access to Food Stamps is one of the most effective ways to do this.    Not only do Food Stamps allow struggling families to put nutritious food on the table, they create a multiplier effect in local economies, with each dollar of food stamps generating $1.84 in economic activity.  This economic activity not only helps grocers and growers, but also state and local governments.

Join us for Hunger Action Day!

St. Anthony Foundation will be working with anti-hunger groups from across the state to urge our Sacramento legislators to help improve access to the Food Stamp program by:

• Simplifying the food stamp application process.
• Enacting reforms that will allow more low income single adults to access Food Stamps.
• Making it possible for more persons in drug/alcohol recovery programs to access Food Stamps and decrease the likelihood of recidivism.

Hunger Action Day will be on Wednesday May 20, 2009.  If you’d like to join St. Anthony Foundation in advocating for anti-hunger legislation at Hunger Action Day, contact Colleen Rivecca at crivecca@stanthonysf.org.