The rich won’t have to worry about state budget cuts, but the poor will.
That’s the California Budget Project’s analysis of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed spending cuts to deal with the state’s $16 billion budget deficit.
The project, an advocacy group for the working poor, released figures this week showing that Napa would not be unscathed. From public school students to child care providers, Napa County families would feel the impact of cuts in services, health care and other sources.
The report shows cuts would affect:
• The more than 17,000 students at Napa County schools. Schwarzenegger’s cuts would equal about $558 in education spending per student, according to the report.
• 2,450 low-income Napa County seniors and people with disabilities, who would lose the state cost-of-living adjustment for Supplemental Social Security Income and state supplementary cash assistance programs at a time when the cost of goods and services is rising.
• 640 low-income Napa County seniors and disabled people who would receive fewer hours of care through the In-Home Supportive Services Program, which offers day care to homebound individuals.
• 50 or fewer Napa County children enrolled in pre-school or child care, who would lose financial support because of cuts to child development programs.
• A projected 300 low-income Napa County children dropped from state Medi-Cal coverage because their parents will have to register with the state four times a year, instead of once per year. According to published reports, the Schwarzenegger administration is betting on applicants either not getting their paperwork in on time or moving away from the homes where they registered for aid.
• 3,630 Napa County children enrolled in the Healthy Families Program will have to pay increases in premiums and co-payments and receive reduced dental services. The program provides low-cost health coverage for children in low-income working families.
Schwarzenegger has said the cuts are necessary to balance the state budget. Because of automatic funding formulas that pay for transportation projects and other major expenditures, funds for health and social services, including money to support the disabled, is often at risk.
Legislative Democrats are calling for higher taxes to keep government services from being cut so severely. Legislative Republicans are against raising taxes to deal with the state’s budget crisis.
Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, slammed Schwarzenegger’s cuts in a prepared statement.
“We are looking at serious blows to our schools, health care, and safety nets for the poor, seniors and disabled,” she said. “By refusing to consider new revenues, even closing tax loopholes, the governor and his Republican colleagues are imposing high human costs on our community. Republican Assemblymembers prevented us from closing the yacht tax loophole twice this year alone. Instead of fighting for working families, they’re protecting tax evasion for rich people. It’s outrageous and out of touch with the needs of California’s working families.”
The so-called “yacht tax loophole” is a law that allows buyers of vehicles, vessels and aircraft to avoid paying state sales tax for those items purchased out of state, as long as they are not brought to California within 12 months or are stored less than half the time in California.
Democrats call it tax evasion, Republicans say changing the law would be a tax hike.
Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project, said she hopes her group’s report will encourage everyday people, including those in Napa County, to join the budget debate.
“The state budget really is a local budget,” she said. “Three quarters of the budget flows directly to households, to schools and to county budgets. People need to understand when there is a problem in Sacramento that it really is a problem in Napa.”
Posted in Local on Saturday, March 8, 2008 12:00 am Updated: 2:20 pm.
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