This is the day I’ve been dreading since January: the day that Governor Schwarzenegger releases his revised budget proposal for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

The “May Revise”, as it’s called, just went live about an hour ago.  With only an hour of analysis under my belt so far, I can simply tell you this: it’s bad!

The Governor proposes the following:

When I read through this list of cuts, I don’t just think about dollars and programs, I think about the people who will be affected.  When I think about the people who will be hurt, I think about St. Anthony Dining Room.  Who are the people we provide free nutritious meals to on a daily basis?  They are the same people who are represented in the cuts list above: the elderly, the disabled, low-wage workers, immigrants, people with mental illness, and struggling families.

All of us, rich and poor, housed and homeless, old and young, suffer when the most vulnerable people in our community suffer.  We at St. Anthony’s will continue to analyze the May Revise and will continue to advocate for fair budgets!  Watch this space for further updates.

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!

This summer, the Governor, through his line item veto power, eliminated all state funding for domestic violence shelters, leaving shelters across the state without any state-level funding to run their programs.  St. Anthony Foundation has been working to help preserve publicly-funded health and social service programs, and blogged about the “brutal budget” after it was signed. Now that the Senate is back in session, Senator Leland Yee has reintroduced a bill that would restore funding for domestic violence shelters in California.  Senator Yee’s bill, SBX3 13, passed the Senate on Wednesday and is now on  Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk, awaiting his signature.

If you support the reinstatement of funding for domestic violence shelters in California, please take a moment and contact Governor Schwarzenegger and ask him to sign the bill.

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.

A friend of mine has bi-polar disease. She has worked for periods in her life and she’s looking for a part time job now. But for several years she has lived on government assistance in a government subsidized SRO.

It differs from most privately owned SRO’s: The building is well kept and well supervised and there are services on site. There are no rats and no mould and no one shooting up in the hallway. The bathroom is shared with only one other person. But her entire home is one-third the size of my studio apartment. There is a stove burner, a microwave and a mini-refrigerator with no freezer; she can’t save money by buying larger quantities of food. Her place costs $650. Her check is somewhere in the $800’s.

According to the California Labor Federation, the most recent corporate tax breaks give away $2.5 billion a year, every year, to a handful of the world’s largest corporations.

These tax breaks have no value to the state or the majority of its businesses. They do not create jobs or soften the economic blow so many families are facing. Ending them won’t drive corporations from California.

California’s health and human services have already been slashed $26 billion, and now Governor Schwarzenegger is pushing another round of major cuts to education, health care, public safety and other vital services. He will not increase taxes on anyone or anything.

Seniors will lose their cost of living increase for 2 years, plus employment services, adult protective services, and home delivered meals. Poor families will make 4% less at CalWORKS, reducing a family of 3 to $694 a month. People like my friend will have another 30 to 60 dollars cut from their support.

Many of these folks are working. Many others are struggling to get even a part time job.

Corporations are no strangers to government subsidy. They know what it is to need a lifeline, as my friend does. Why shouldn’t corporations pay as much as individuals and local businesses do for the privilege of working in San Francisco.

“Indian Joe”, a longtime guest and friend of St. Anthony’s, has a story filled with tears and triumphs, and throughout it all he’s managed to keep to keep a stiff upper lip.

“You can’t keep a good man down!” quips Joe.

Joe talked with me today and gave me his thoughts on the uncertainty sourounding the current financial crisis.

Two of the most popular topics for conversation in the St. Anthony Foundation Dining Room are sports and politics. Today’s blog entry on the state budget will capture that spirit, because the easiest way to understand what’s happening with the state budget negotiations is to compare them to a football game.

This week, the Democrats threw two incomplete passes: one Wednesday (with a vote on alternate cuts package that failed) and one Thursday (with a vote on cash flow bills that failed). This means that we have returned to the line of scrimmage: advocates for social and health services have neither gained nor lost ground, but we have lost two precious days of negotiations.

Senate leader Darrell Steinberg gave a hint at the behind the scenes demands by the Governor and the Republicans when he stated,

“We don’t take pledges in our caucus like some do but if we did it would sound like this: We are not going to eliminate CalWORKs, we are not to eliminate Healthy Families, we are not going to eliminate IHSS and and we are not going to eliminate CalGrants. We are not going to eliminate the safety net. You need to know where we are not going to go.”

What does this mean for advocates who want to take action against harmful cuts to health and social service programs? As the legislature returns to square one (or third down, or whatever), so must we! We need to make calls, calls, calls!

This weekend, call your legislators and the Governor and tell them that you support a budget that uses revenue enhancement measures to mitigate the worst of the proposed cuts to the safety net. This information sheet makes it easy to know who to contact, and what type of message needs to be delivierd to particular legislators.

Let’s set aside a few minutes this weekend to call our state leaders and tell them some decisions are inconceivable when measured against the human toll left in their wake.

The state legislature is expected to vote on the Budget Conference
Committee’s version of the budget today. As you may know, the Budget Conference Committee’s plan makes cuts (but not as drastic as the Governor’s plan) but avoids some of the worst cuts by raising revenue. (For a comparison of the Governor’s and the Conference Committee’s plans, go to:  http://bit.ly/ABxNo)

The Conference Committee plan is certain to fail if the bills don’t receive 4 votes from Assembly Republicans (54 votes out of the 80 member Assembly) and at least 2 votes from State Senate Republicans, (out of the 40 member State Senate) assuming all Assembly and Senate Democrats approve the plan, including just declared former Democratic Assemblyman – now independent – Juan Arambula.

Advocates have been working very hard to increase the political pressure on the legislature and Governor to consider revenue increases and to avoid the worst of the cuts. Civil disobedience yesterday in front of the San Francisco state building led to 17 arrests for blocking traffic. The protesters were seniors and people with disabilities who oppose cuts to health care and SSI. Similar protests took place in LA and Sacramento yesterday, and more advocates will converge on the Capitol today.

If you want to advocate for a fair budget, here’s how:

Sign this petition from California Labor Federation:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/stop_corporate_tax_cuts_petition

Contact the Governor’s office and tell him that you want a fair budget. Tell them you support revenue increases as a way to enable some restoration of funding for vital health and human service programs.
http://gov.ca.gov/interact

What do we do now that the budget has left the Conference Committee and is in the hands of the Big 5? To answer that question, here’s an advocacy message from California Food Policy Advocates.

Action Items! What YOU can do!

1. Thank the budget conference committee for their positive actions to save CFAP (the California Food Assistance Program) and eliminate SFIS (finger imaging). To see who was on the budget conference committee: http://bit.ly/131K4h

2. Join with others in actions calling for the closing corporate tax
loopholes! Follow this link for more info: http://bit.ly/12EaHD

3. Support legislation from Senator Padilla and Senator Steinberg to
raise tobacco taxes and levies on oil extraction. Follow this link for
more info: http://bit.ly/14duKz

4. Tell the Big Five that revenue solutions must be part of the final
budget!

Contact Info for the “Big Five”:

Governor Schwarzenegger: http://bit.ly/pQ65C

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass: http://bit.ly/12Tzlj

Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee: http://bit.ly/EzAYI

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg: http://bit.ly/eYHlN

Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth: http://bit.ly/eMeFi