Lawsuits Against the California Budget Plan

Many lawyers have been working with cases involving the new spending plans passed by the California Legislature and the Governor. The litigators are trying to get back the money that their clients lost in the budget process. Everyone is having success and winning their lawsuits, which is costing the state even more billions of dollars and causing a bigger uproar with the budget process.

In the past few months, more than a billion dollars have been added on to the state's deficit by courts with they're declatations of illegal reducation in health care services, redevelopment agency funds, and transportation spending.

Lawyers have had little time to prepare for their lawsuits that have been related to the buged that was only signed last month. On Friday, Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg (D- Sacramento), announced plans to sue the governor for illegally making over $500 million in cuts.

Lawyers are getting a hold of state laws that were put in place, some by citizen initiative, during better economic times. Due to California's budget crisis, the lawmakers and governor are making attempts to take money from programs that were previously rejected by the courts. The lawsuits alone are costing the state millions of dollars in attorney salaries and other legal fees.

There has been talk that the governor will need to call an emergency session in the fall so lawmakers can continue to work on the state's debt.

Even before the official budget plan came out, many groups began to announced their plans to sue. More than a dozen suits against the state would take away funding from redevelopment and put it into school districts. If it litigation is successful, it would throw the budget off balance by almost $2 billion.

Medi-Cal doctors have a $1.1-billion cut in their reimbursements. Federal Appeals Courts have saida 10% cut in what physicians are paid by Medi-Calis illegal. The court concluded that this cut would make Medi-Cal doctors leave the program, and put their patients in danger by violating the program's standards.

Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project said that the lawsuits are, "a product of the desperation of the people trying to forge budget agreements," and "All of the easy solutions are gone. The choices are hard, the gap is wide. People look to riskier and riskier options to come up with savings."

Sometimes, lawmakers approve budget measures despite the legality if the situation to buy them time. By the time the appeals prricess is worn out, even though it make take a few years, the economy has a chance to rebound.


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