According to Jewish social service agencies, the good news is, there finally is a state budget. The bad news is almost everything else.
The budget, passed late last month, doesn’t worry service providers nearly as much as the lurking possibility that the state will strictly cut back Medi-Cal benefits.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger “has a major proposal on the table to restructure Medi-Cal. He plans to reduce funding, increase eligibility requirements, place new restrictions on various programs, increase the share of costs to participants and put a moratorium on new adult day health centers,” sums up Anita Friedman, executive director of the S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services.
“We have had cuts in this current year. And we continue to be concerned about the trend toward cutting government services to the indigent.”
Friedman cites a litany of programs the JFCS has been forced to snip or cut in response to dwindling state money. For example the citizenship program, which paired needy foreign-born seniors with lawyers and paralegals to tutor them prior to the citizenship test, has been heavily pared. And JFCS plans to obtain licenses for new adult day health care programs have hit a major snag.
Also, with less money, grants to low-income students were exhausted within six months after lasting a whole year in 2003.
Across the Bay, Ted Feldman, director of the East Bay JFCS, notes that reduced funds allotted to counties has “trickled down” to harm service providers and the needy.
“Contra Costa County has made some major cuts in their budget, and our contracts with them may not come through,” he said.
Feldman added that the final budget was not nearly as bad as several preliminary proposals, but the elephant in the living room is the looming Medi-Cal situation.
Abby Snay of Jewish Vocational Service is relieved the state finally established a budget; without it, key federal funds could not be distributed to California. Roughly $90 million in work force investment funds have been granted to California, with about $500,000 headed to the JVS now that a budget exists.
Snay, however, was less than pleased with the governor’s rejection of $48 million in employment funding from CalWorks, a welfare-to-work program for those under age 65.
Overall, Snay, Feldman and Friedman predicted an intensified battle to obtain government money to aid the poor.
“It’s not a pretty picture if it continues going in this direction,” Friedman said.