California budget crisis victims

AS CALIFORNIA politicians scramble to deflect blame and pass the buck in the wake of the longest budget battle in state history, many of the state's most vulnerable residents are already losing the meager services on which their lives depend.

Typical of the devastation is the disruption to services for the developmentally disabled. Westside Regional Center (WRC), a state-funded, private non-profit center in Culver City, near Los Angeles, serves approximately 7,000 people with disabilities. On September 4, WRC announced that it had exhausted the line of credit it had borrowed to keep operating during the budget debacle.

Employees and service providers were given just one week's notice that the center was out of funds. On September 11, WRC stopped paying employees and encouraged people to work without pay. Employees and service providers have been told they will be paid retroactively as soon as the budget is passed.

"It's unfair to ask us for a pay cut. It's unfair to counselors, therapists and the clients," said Sharnae Moore of the Arc South Bay, one of WRC's service providers.

The fallout from this standoff has left many government services across the state in shambles. Many health care providers, transportation companies and rehabilitation programs have been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy or out of business. For example, 90 employees at the Phoenix House, a drug treatment program that is an alternative to prison for many youth, lost their jobs with almost no warning in August.

But patience is wearing thin. About 1,000 case workers, service providers, family members and people with disabilities marched to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's downtown Los Angeles office September 15 to show their anger toward lawmakers and the governor over the budget impasse.

As participant John Bamberg of the Westside Center for Independent Living said, "There's enough money to bailout Wall Street, but we're told there's none to fill the gap for social services. It makes no sense."

Schwarzenegger finally signed a budget on September 23, but nothing in it is good news for ordinary Californians.

As Latricia Murray, a parent of two disabled children who receive services at WRC, said in an interview with KNBC, "I really think that they should tax the people that have the money, the rich people, because I can't afford to pay for my children's services. I can barely afford to pay for my food, for my rent. Everything is going up."

The new budget, however, included no such taxes on the wealthy. Instead, social services and schools will continue to take drastic cuts. As a T-shirt worn by one person at the rally said, "Where's our bailout?"