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Friday, February 18, 2011

Assembly Democrats Likely To Reject Some Cuts in Budget Plan

On Friday, California's Assembly Budget Committee likely will reject some of Gov. Jerry Brown's (D) most controversial proposed health and human services cuts, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Rejecting Cuts

Democrats on the budget committee are expected to take similar steps that the Senate Budget Committee took on Wednesday. Specifically, Assembly Democrats are expected to reject:

  • Eliminating the adult day health care program;
  • Placing caps on physician visits and prescription drugs for beneficiaries of Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program;
  • Reducing In-Home Supportive Services care hours by 12%;
  • Eliminating welfare aid for children after a four-year time limit; and
  • Cutting welfare grants by 13%.

Implementing Other Changes

However, committee members do plan to:

  • Impose a four-year time cap on welfare for adults;
  • Cut welfare grants by 5%;
  • Require IHSS beneficiaries to obtain medical certification;
  • Introduce alternative IHSS changes; and
  • Drop the state reserve fund from $1 billion to $300 million to help replace savings lost from rejected cuts.

Next Up

Both legislative houses are expected to convene joint budget committee meetings starting next week.

Brown wants lawmakers to approve his budget plan by March so voters can decide in a June special election whether to approve tax extensions for five years (Yamamura, Sacramento Bee, 2/18).

Reader Comments:
  • 2
  • 02/22/2011
  • Robert Forster

This all assumes that the compassionate tax paying Californians will vote and approve an extension of "temporary" taxes for another 5 years--I bet it wont happen. Then what?
Brown and the legislature is being too timid re: the size of the deficit and no cure on the horizon. Where are the fiscal issues re: governmental employees (including legislators) and their benefits, salaries and pensions? More political games when everything in the GB should be fair game instead of taxing once again those of us who are productive in this state.

  • 1
  • 02/18/2011
  • Francisco Oaxaca

It is also important to note that in keeping with its prioritization of "safety net" services, the Senate Budget Committee also rejected the Governor's proposal to take 50% of all future Proposition 10 tobacco tax revenue from county First 5 Commissions statewide. That diversion of funds would have devastated programs that serve tens of thousands of children and families across the state. The Governor still wants to take $1 billion in additional funds from the same commissions in a one-time sweep which would also have a devastating impact on multi-year programs those funds are already committed to. This strategy of gutting local programs that are proven successes flies in the face of the Governor's stated desire to "realign" programs to the local level. Here he wants to "unalign" to "realign". How can that make sense?



Readers are invited to send feedback to: chl@chcf.org

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