Stay Informed and Ready to Advocate!
With significant cuts and shifts in funding as part of the new state budget, it’s important to stay informed. Revisit this page and sign up for email (at right) to receive updates and calls to action.
Help California’s Most Vulnerable
Please Give a Few Minutes to Stay Informed
We’d like to keep you informed about the impact of California’s new budget on vulnerable children and their families. The picture is not pleasant.
Over the last couple of years, the state’s poor economic climate has continued to erode already precarious funding for children’s welfare/foster care and mental health services resulting in severe cuts at the local level.
You’ve probably heard that to balance the budget this fiscal year, Governor Brown approved over $13 billion in cuts that significantly impact programs for the poor and disabled. These cuts directly impact the state university systems and K-12 education as well as state and local government operations to provide for what has been called “safety net” programs – child welfare, mental health, probation and more.
Also contained in the budget bill that Governor Brown signed, the legislature shifted control of “safety net” funding to the counties beginning July 2011. Local elected officials now have decision authority over how to spend those dollars but without clarity around how funding levels will be protected for specific purposes within that allocation. Children’s programs are at risk. Inevitably, the needs of children will compete against funding for adult and correctional programs.
How local governments decide to fund and manage services is more critical now than ever before. That means it’s more important than ever that you stay informed and ready to act when needed. Sign up today to join our community (at right), and we’ll continue to send you updates in the weeks ahead as budget information unfolds.
Thank you for your help and concern for California’s most vulnerable. We are grateful for your support of children in crisis.
Darrell Evora
President & CEO
Expected Revenues and Potential ‘Trigger Cuts”
Thanks to the California Alliance of Child and Family Services for providing the following information.
The governor was never able to secure the four Republican votes needed to put his hoped for tax extensions on the ballot for a special election. That plan would have generated $6 billion in revenue to fund his proposal to realign “public safety” programs, including children’s mental health, child welfare and foster care.
Instead, the final budget assumes the state will collect approximately $4 billion more in tax revenue in 2011-12 than originally projected, an assumption based on a real bump of $1.2 billion in 2010-11 revenue.
If the additional revenue does not materialize, however, there will be mid-year tiered “trigger” cuts, most of which would take effect January 1, 2012.
Tiered “Trigger” Cuts
Tier 0:
Revenue: State receives $3 billion to $4 billion of projected additional revenue.
Cuts: State makes NO additional cuts; any balance of problem to be rolled over into the 2012-13 budget.
Tier 1:
Revenue: State receives $2 billion to $3 billion of projected additional revenue.
Cuts: State makes $600 million in cuts and rolls over the remaining deficit into the 2012-13 budget.
Cuts would include: $100 million to the UC, $100 million to CSU, $100 million to In-Home Supportive Services, $100 million to the Department of Developmental Services, $80 million to public safety programs, $30 million to community colleges, $23 million across-the-board cut childcare funding, $20 million to CDCR, $16 million to California State Library in library grants, $15 million to Medi-Cal Managed Care, $15 million to California Emergency Management Agency, $10 million to DSS in anti-fraud grants.
Tier 2:
Revenue: State receives $0 to $2 billion of projected additional revenue.
Cuts: State makes up to $1.9 billion in additional cuts, proportionate to revenues, including: $1.5 billion to schools (assumes seven fewer classroom days), $248 million eliminating school bus transportation, $72 million to community colleges.
Related Articles
- Children’s Health: Parent’s Mistakes Can Leave Lasting Impact- Pennlive.com – July 19, 2011
Study finds that as the number of childhood trauma stressors increased, the risk increases for adult behavior problems, and risk of a host of health problems increased sometimes 12 fold. Study conducted by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente. - California Master Plan (1960-2011)– Huffington Post – July 1, 2011″The loss of dependable funding for the three systems of higher education is expected to put new strains on the criminal justice and social welfare systems. A 2005 study by the University of California, Berkeley demonstrated that for every state dollar invested in higher education, California saves three dollars in corrections and state social services.”
- California Budget Gets Vote of Confidence From Standard & Poor’s- Bloomberg – July 7, 2011Credit outlook moves from negative to stable.
- Jerry Brown Signs California Budget without Fanfare- San Jose Mercury News – July 1, 2011Closing $26.6 billion deficit means significant cuts in government services and no tax extensions.
