Schwarzenegger Cuts $500 Million

On Tuesday, July 28^th, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a budget proposal making an additional $500 million in cuts.

The additional cuts will impact child welfare programs, children’s healthcare, the elderly, state parks, and AIDS prevention and treatment. These cuts are significantly larder than what the Governor had originally negotiated with the legislation.

Democratic Party individuals in the Assembly and Senate were upset with the Governor’s decision, but he says that the cuts are necessary and proper, as Schwarzenegger called the budget “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” The governor says that the “good” is that taxes will not be raised, and the government will be more efficient due to its reform and elimination of boards and commissions. The “bad” part is the extreme cuts that are made to state programs that will hurt millions of Californians. The “ugly” involves new reductions made by the Governor.

Out of the $500 million, $80 million was taken that pays for workers who help abused and neglected children, $50 million from Healthy Families who provides healthcare to children in low-income families, $50 million from services for developmentally delayed children under 3 years old, $16 million from domestic violence programs, and $6.3 million from services that assist the elderly.

Ted Lempert, the president of the advocacy group Children Now, spoke about the cut to Healthy Families and called it “particularly galling.” “A struggling family puts their kids first…What the Governor and what the state has done is the opposite.”

Karen Bass (D- Los Angeles), Assembly Speaker and Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), Senate leader, are questioning Schwarzenegger’s changes. They both states that they would want to reinstate the cuts after their recess. Bass referred to the Governor as “so eager to tear down the safety net that he appears willing to break the law to do it.” She puts the blame of the Governor for rejected taxes on oil and tobacco instead of “the sick, the young, the elderly, and battered women.”

Even though the Governor signed the proposal, he still said that the state will have more financial troubles.

The new plan will affect everyone with its reductions in K-12 education, state colleges and universities, healthcare, and assistance for the elderly and poor.

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