Action Alerts
April 23, 2010
URGENT ACTION ALERT!!!
Legislative Budget Sub-Committees to Hold First Critical Hearings
If you are close enough to attend, please join us in Sacramento!
The Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittees have scheduled hearings next week and the week after on the Department of Developmental Services Budget. These will be the first critical hearings this year.
SENATE BUDGET SUB-COMMITTEE #3
Thursday, April 29
9:30 AM
State Capitol, Room 4203
ASSEMBLY BUDGET SUB-COMMITTEE #1
Wednesday, May 5
1:30 PM
State Capitol, Room 444
FIRST URGENT ACTION REQUEST!
If you are close to Sacramento or able to travel, please plan on attending one or both of these important hearings. The first, next Thursday, is in a large room that will still be overflowing. One of the important impacts that our system can have on this place is our ability to make our presence physically known! People in the Capitol know when the disability community is present – and it is important.
The second is like the first, except that the room is very small! If you want to be in the room, you need to arrive early.
SECOND URGENT ACTION REQUEST!
Communicate with the Members of the respective Budget Subcommittees by letter or phone call (information below). Letters are good, and particularly for the May 5th hearings there is time. For next week, however, calls to the Senators on the Sub-committee and to your own members may be more practical and effective.
BACKGROUND/MESSAGE
As you already know, last year the Legislature suspended the sub-committee process in favor of a pre-mature conference committee which dealt with all budget items en masse. The result, combined with the Department’s “stakeholder process” led to some unnecessarily severe cuts and impacts directly on the lives of people with disabilities, their families and the people who support their lives.
Without the time and opportunity for meaningful input from those of us who know the system best, it would be hard to imagine how such an outcome could be avoided without pure dumb luck!
This year, however, it appears that the Legislature is returning to its more traditional and appropriate processes. That does not mean that there is not significant risk and concern. But it does mean we can begin to lay down a record of those concerns and offer alternatives to avoid disaster.
The fact remains that California is once again confronting a $20 billion deficit. We won’t know the true numbers until the Governor releases his May Revision sometime around May 15th. But all indications are that although there are some very modest signs of economic recovery, California is still in a deep fiscal crisis, led by an unemployment rate that exceeds 12.6%.
To date, the DD system alone has experienced General Fund cuts of more than $500 million. This doesn’t include the hundreds of millions of dollars of lost federal money, nor does it include the dramatic impact on the lives of consumers from other systems such as IHSS, medical and dental services, and other support provided from other networks and systems.
This year, further deep cuts have not been announced. There is a DDS proposal for an additional $25 million in cuts. But we also know that some of the money that the Governor’s January Budget anticipated, including almost $200 million from a proposed transfer of funds from the statewide First Five Commission, will not occur. Therefore, in combination with a continuing bad economy, the May Revision could contain still further proposed cuts.
We also know that many of the proposals to reach $334 million in reductions last year either did not reach their levels of expected reductions or far exceeded them. As an example, CDSA through our representative on the Stakeholder group informed DDS that the Senior Program and the Custom Endeavors Program-both modest savings at best-would not achieve any savings. And in fact, that has been the case.
On the other extreme, cuts to Respite, Early Intervention, and Transportation have far exceeded the levels of reduction the Department proposed.
Some in a purely fiscal world might say that all balances out. But if you are one of thousands of families whose infant children now have no place to go to receive vital early services to prevent future more severe disabilities, that “balance” means nothing. Or if you are a family receiving critical respite services that enable you to support your family member at home you may face a 30% reduction in services rather than the 2% level that was budgeted. Contemplation of possible out-of-home placement is hardly offset by the concept of “balance”.
Each of you has your own examples! That is why it is so vital for you all to participate in telling your stories. The Legislature acts on a statewide basis – and they rely on what they hear from the Department to determine whether the decisions they are making are too harsh.
Without your input, they have no way of knowing. They are simply informed, as I said above, that the goals for saving the $334 million are being achieved. The human impact of that “balance” is not part of the message.
MESSAGE! - No further cuts can come from direct services. The cumulative impacts on people’s lives are already too severe. Instead
- Speed the final closure of the Agnews Developmental Center – although no consumers remain, the Department is still spending more than $5 million to implement a “warm shut-down”; mowing lawns, flushing toilets, operating heating/air conditioning, etc. Let’s really move out!
- Abandon the so-called “prevention program” under Early Start. Thousands of families lost services. And that is most certainly not what we wanted. But after the fact, the Department secured an additional $27 million for regional centers to tell these families there is nothing they can do for them. Next year, the proposal is to spend $29 million. Instead, let’s use most of these funds to meet the expected $25 million in additional cuts. Anything over and above should be transferred to the Family Resource Centers where actual services can be coordinated for families to lost support.
- Refine some of the trailer bill language of last year to achieve the savings without damaging the rights of consumers to make their own life choices, confront larger than budgeted cuts to respite and other vital services and provide flexibility to the service community in meeting the needs of consumers free of overly restrictive bureaucratic requirements.