Dear editor, Please help us fight this crisis for our children. Forward this letter, or similar, to Senator Patricia A. Wiggins and Honorable Noreen Evans, the decision-makers. You can visit the Web site at www.cdfca.org for more information.

As an active constituent and concerned voter in your district, I urge you to support a balanced solution to the current budget crisis that includes new revenue and rejects harmful cuts to children’s programs.

While I support the Conference Committee’s plan to increase revenue as part of the budget solution, I am deeply concerned that the current proposal still fails our state’s children. There is no reason to enact new reporting requirements that will drop more than 250,000 of the poorest California children from Medi-Cal coverage over the next few years. Most of these children remain eligible, so this increased red tape will result in the State spending more money on administration and less on health care.

I urge you to put our state’s children first and reject cuts to the critical programs and services children need to grow up healthy and become productive adults. With the downturn in the economy California families are already struggling to make ends meet. Now is not the time to cut children’s coverage.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Step up and take action for California children.

Cheri Fels / Yountville