by Sheila Kuehl
January 8, 2011

In just a few days, Governor Brown will unveil his budget for 2011-12.  This is the final essay in a series describing the 2009-10 and 2010-11 budget struggles. 

The first seven essays in this series described budget proposals and negotiations in fiscal 2009-10, the Governor's January 2010 budget, the first "fixes" proposed by the Democratic majority, the "fix" bills sent to the Governor in March of 2010, his vetoes, the compromises finally enacted at the end of March, the May Revision sent by the Governor to the Legislature, the Democratic response to the May Revision, and the final passage of the budget in October.  This last essay reports on the Governor's extensive line item vetoes which both added to the reserve and drastically slashed monies for the poor, child care, mental health, the elderly and people with disabilities.

Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse...
Although the Legislature had already reduced expenditures in the 2010-2011 budget by more than 7.4 billion dollars from the previous year's budget, the Governor was not satisfied.  Apparently in contravention of agreements made with legislative leaders, he blue-penciled an additional $963 million dollars before signing the budget, in order to increase the state's reserve fund to $1.3 billion.  Most of the cuts further burdened those least able to fight for themselves (or lobby the Governor)--children, poor parents, seniors and people with disabilities.

In addition, there had been an ongoing back and forth struggle between the Governor and the Legislature over many of these line items.  The Governor had blue-penciled several of these same funds from the 2009-2010 budget.  His January budget proposal went even further, eliminating programs like CalWORKS entirely.  The Legislature partially restored most of the program funds and programs for the poor in the October 2010-11 budget and, as if to say "What is it about 'I really meant to cut these items' you don't understand?" the Governor slashed them again.

Child Care
Over one-quarter of the funds vetoed by the Governor ($256 million) eliminated funding for 55,000 children now in "Stage 3" child care, the child care provided to those who are working under the CalWORKS program.  This veto eliminated the entire program, leaving it with only $129 million in federal support to fund the program through the end of October.  A mad scramble was set off to find monies to keep the program going until a new Governor was sworn in.  A suit was filed against the state on behalf of parents, claiming that families were losing their child care without proper notice and the court agreed, ordering the state to continue to fund Stage 3 child care through the end of December.

Mental Health Services for Special Ed Students
Although the Legislature had begun eliminating some of the mandates placed on schools for the provision of specialized services, the Legislature had retained the monies and the mandate for mental health-related services to special education pupils who need the services in order to derive any benefit from their educational programs.  The Governor vetoed the use of $76 million of federal funding available specifically to county mental health agencies for this purpose.

Child Welfare, Primary Care and Rural Health
Before signing the 2009-10 budget, the Governor vetoed $80 million in General Fund monies set aside for various programs serving children and families, and providing primary health services to the poor and to those who live in rural communities with few healthcare options.  These funds were all restored in the 2010-11 budget the Legislature put on the Governor's desk in October.

The Governor again vetoed the funds for these programs.  Community-based clinic programs such as the Seasonal and Migratory Program, the American Indian Program, the state's Rural Health Program and the Expanded Access for Primary Care Program were slated to receive a $10 million dollar increase.  Vetoed.  One million dollars had been added to the Governor's original budget proposal in order to fund treatment for prostate cancer.  Vetoed.  The Legislature had increased funding for the Black Infant Health Program by $2 million.  Vetoed.  In 2009-10, the Governor vetoed about $10 million from nutrition programs for seniors and Alzheimer's services and the Legislature attempted to restore about 2/3 of that in the 2010-11 budget.  Vetoed, leaving these programs virtually unfunded.

AIDS
The Governor vetoed more than $60 million dollars in HIV/AIDS prevention, education and care programs.  He had vetoed $52 million in the 2009-10 budget, which was restored by the Legislature in this budget.  Vetoed.  This left only minimal federal funding for these programs.  The Legislature had also increased the monies available to the AIDS drug rebate fund by $7.6 million.  Vetoed.

What Happens Next?
Not long after the budget was signed, the LAO began predicting a significant shortfall for 2010-11 (what was left of it), and 2011-12.  Estimates ranged as high as $28 billion.  Now that Governor Brown has been sworn in, he is more than hinting at even more terrible reductions for the poor and children, seniors and people with disabilities, unless voters decide that they will continue the temporary sales tax and vehicle license fee increases into the new budget.  To do so, it seems the Governor wants a budget decision in a very short time and to go to the ballot in June.  Republican strategist Grover Nordquist fired the first salvo against this plan by indicating that voting to place a tax increase on the ballot for a general vote is the same as voting to increase the tax (a curiously anti-democratic notion).

Under virtually any scenario, the most vulnerable in the state seem slated to continue to suffer a lack of support for even their most basic needs while the people of California decide whether they are only for themselves, individually, or whether they are a part of a larger community--the old California in which we share the burdens and benefits of caring for our own.  Each of these budget "buckets"--education, higher education, CalWORKS, healthcare, transportation, environmental protection, protection of our most vulnerable, public safety, emergency services--all of them are intertwined, none stands alone.  Time will tell if the people of California see it this way, or if they will continue the fragmentation and dissolution signified by their votes (many of them against their own best interests) on the continuing plethora of initiatives.

Next:  The New Proposed Budget